


Sly

by Mozambique_and_a_dream



Category: Apex Legends (Video Games)
Genre: Apex Legends, apex oc, long fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:13:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 73
Words: 113,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24009412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mozambique_and_a_dream/pseuds/Mozambique_and_a_dream
Summary: A long-running Apex Fanfic from my Wattpad account that has been requested on AO3!Sly is an Apex OC!
Comments: 10
Kudos: 34





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Per request, I am going to be adding this story to AO3! Even though I have no idea how this website works! Yay!
> 
> Sly was originally started well over a year ago so a lot of the earlier chapters are from the early days of the game. Therefore, a lot of my plot points are no longer 'canon' so there will be some discrepancies between that and this, although I have tried to adapt as I go if possible!! Don't worry if one of the newer legends isn't in yet, as again, this was started before Octane was even introduced, they will show up eventually!
> 
> There are currently 66 chapters and I am still going so... yeah...
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/731978259-sly-an-apex-legends-fanfic-chapter-1

"I'm okay with dying" I mumbled to myself. Although as I said it I began to doubt myself more and more. There was nothing left for me here anyway, dying wouldn't even be that bad, but the longer I was waiting for takeoff I began to get more and more nervous. Best case scenario I would win and Woodall would set Sky and I free, something we had dreamed about in the year I had known her. But if I would die, sure I would be happy, but she would still be trapped as Woodall's slave. I sighed and adjusted the makeshift costume I had put together for myself. I had thought that I had been clever when I designed it to look like the superhero Spider-Man, but I had yet to receive comments on it, making me begin to think that no one knew who Spider-Man was anymore.

I did my best not to make eye contact with the other people that were loading onto the ship with me. Most of us were going to be dead within the hour. However I did begin to take note on how many players had invested in Respawns. If one had the cash, they could die in these games in the most gruesome way possible and be able to get back up an hour later. I didn't have that luxury, Woodall would rather I die painfully than have me come back to be his slave. That was fine by me.

I knew that I stood a bit of a chance competing, with the abilities I had, I knew I would be able to have the element of surprise against some of these people. Ever since I had woken up back in that place, I had discovered that being cryogenically frozen for just over seven hundred years came with some funky side effects. I still had no idea how or why I had been frozen, my last memory was simply me walking across my universities campus and then the next thing I knew... Well, I'm here. Everyone I knew or loved is long dead, the planet I used to call home had been practically destroyed and now is only inhabited with slaves salvaging what is left. I shook my head, if I was going to die in the next hour I didn't need to be thinking about that anymore.

As the dropship took off towards the island, I began to make my way over to an empty chair. However, as I was walking I noticed a face in the crowd that was familiar. I cursed under my breath, it was a legend. And not just any legend, it was Mirage. I felt my anxiety fly through the roof, there wasn't supposed to be any previous winners playing today. I really was going to die. This guy had never lost a solo match. Ever. Something told me he wasn't about to break his streak. I didn't even realize I was staring until he waved his hand in front of my face.

"Hello?" I snapped back to attention, my eyes wide. "I said I liked your outfit." I looked down at myself and at the Spider-Man suit. "Very different, hip."

"Oh, uh," I stuttered. "Thanks." My nervousness caused him to laugh.

"First time?" I nodded. "Got a respawn?" I shook my head. "That's a shame." And with that sentence he made his way to the back of the ship, the doors which had now been opened, and jumped out. I cursed again as I watched the rest of the people begin to file out. I put my hands on my head. I couldn't believe I was really going to do this. I readjusted the mask one more time, took a deep breath, and lept.

It seemed that skydiving was a lot harder than I had imagined. I was able to even myself out after flailing in the air for a few seconds and I could begin to steer myself in the direction that I wanted to go. However, now that I was falling I began to realize how little I knew about this island. My map that was on the armband screen they gave me told me where the "hot zone" was and I knew that I should avoid that at all costs. I decided it would be smart to stick to the edge of the map and then make my way in as the ring would close behind me.

I had been aiming for a place called Artillery but I had miscalculated how I was flying and I wound up just outside the walls. As the announcer declared first blood, I quickly scanned the area and saw a group of three supply crates and ran towards them. However as I opened up the first one I saw another person right behind me. I saw him trying to make a grab for the gun that was in the bin I just opened and without thinking I had my knee in the guys stomach. As he recoiled backwards I grabbed the gun, a pistol that I think is called a Wingman. The guy looked back up and me and saw that I was holding it and his face went white. I pulled back the trigger and closed my eyes as the bullet made its way through his chest.

As he crumpled over I had to bite back the urge I had to toss up my breakfast. I killed someone. I looked down at the gun in my hand and back to the body. I killed him. My chest felt tight, it felt like I couldn't breathe. I glanced back over at the body and noticed that on his screen on his arm there was a blinking green dot.

He had a respawn.

I felt myself exhale. I didn't kill him. At least, permanently. I leant up against the side of the open supply bin and caught my breath. It had only been two minutes into the game. The screen on my wrist buzzed and I saw that they had given the first ring location. It was a fair distance away. I cursed and went over to the other two supply bins. I found a few medical supplies and a blue shield. As I activated it I watched it shine blue before going transparent over top of my suit. I took a second to appreciate how cool technology was in this time before carrying on.

I knew that I needed to get another weapon, this pistol may not be enough. I made my way toward a small building just outside of the walls to Artillery, where I could still hear gunshots ringing out. I had to be fast. On the floor there were two more weapons, neither that I could name. I sighed,

"Probably should've looked up how guns work before this, huh?" I thought out loud. Of the two I noticed that one took the same kind of ammo as the Wingman and I made a decision to take that one. I picked it up and examined it. Some sort of assault weapon. I knew that much from video games. I had hardly noticed that the gunfire coming from inside Artillery had stopped, I was so busy trying to sort through the stuff I had collected and storing it in the tiny backpack I had found. When I heard the footsteps outside the building I was in I felt my heart climb back into my throat. Whoever it was was going to be coming in here, no doubt to check for loot.

"What would spidey do?" I wondered as I looked up at the roof. I shook my head and quickly hoisted myself on top of the shelves inside the building. I shakily put my foot on the roof. "Okay superpowers," I muttered. "Don't fail me now." I began to wish that I had taken more time to try and master the ability. Spider-Man always made it look so easy. Then again, he was fictional. Luckily, my foot stuck and I quickly crawled the rest of the way onto the roof of the building just as the door below me opened. I felt myself take a sharp inhale as the person looked around. As I watched her I noticed that I had left both of my guns on ground. I cursed in my head. How could I be that stupid? If this girl looked up...

She bent down to look at my guns which I had left of the floor and looked back at the door before picking one up. I noticed that she grinned when she picked up the Wingman and she slid it into her gun belt, leaving behind a different weapon. As she did that, I took the chance to crawl towards the other end of the roof so that I wouldn't be above the door when she walked out. However, as I moved I felt myself losing control over the stickiness. I readjusted my feet but as I did I kicked down a tiny chunk of the roof onto the floor.

When it clattered to the floor the woman in the room snapped her head around in a swivel. She walked up to where the piece of roof was and picked it up. She shook her head as she tossed it to the ground and walked out the building. When the door shut I realized that I had been holding my breath and I took another deep breath. That was close. I took a few more deep breaths while still on the roof to focus myself. I heard the sound of the person getting onto the zip line balloon and decided it was safe to come down. I dropped my feet down first, leaving my hand on the roof before letting go and dropping down to the ground. A move I had remembered from Spider-Man. I shook my head, if only my friends could see me now. Basically Spider-Man, just female, without the webs and literally in a blood sport.

I looked back at the ground and looked at the weapon the woman had left behind in exchange for my Wingman. The gun had Mozambique written on the side and I noticed it took shotgun ammo. I shook my head as I slid the gun into the loops of the backpack. I guess it was going to have to do. 

"Warning," a voice from above spoke. "Ring closing." I frantically looked down at my map, had it been ten minutes already.

"Shit!" I exclaimed. Guess I didn't have time to go inside Artillery to look for scraps. I made my way out of the building. I could make it into the next ring if I jogged. I knew that taking the balloon would be faster but after jumping out of that ship I wasn't sure I wanted to try that again. As I jogged I looked down at the device on my arm. It looked like half of the people were dead already. The tracker in the corner told me that I was at one kill and I tried not to think back to the man I left lying dead in the dirt. I looked back up to the area around me and saw that on the giant screens around the map the champion, Mirage, was still alive. Not only that, but he was at two kills already. I sighed, I knew my only chance of winning would be if someone else would take him out for me. But I knew the chances of that were slim.


	2. Chapter 2

With the ring right behind me, I sprinted the rest of the way inside. I put my hands on my knees and caught my breath. As I did I realized that I was curious as to what the ring felt like and without thinking I stuck my hand in it.

"Ouch!" I cried out as I pulled my hand back in. I cradled it to my chest, that thing really did hurt. I couldn't imagine getting stuck in it. Up head of me in some buildings I heard more gunfire. I looked down at the two guns I had and realized that I needed to get something better. Maybe even a better shield. The only way to do that however would be to get involved in whatever fight was unfolding in front of me. I quickly weighed the choices in my head. "Well," I mumbled. "I do have the other ability." As I talked to myself I remembered what they had told me back before I had got onto the ship about the amount of cameras everywhere. They wanted a good show. I shook my head, "And if I die," I continued speaking out loud for the audience that I didn't even think would be watching me. "Then I'll be going out in a blaze of glory." I pulled out the mozambique since it was lighter and easy to carry and jogged over to the buildings. I could see one of the guys behind cover reloading his gun while the other moved up. The other guy didn't even see him coming.

Once he took the shot I made my move and rushed at the one still standing. I pulled the trigger back on the gun I was holding, believing that I had the advantage. However, it appeared as if this shotgun was not a good one and the spray from it barely even touched the guy. He turned around, saw me, and laughed while pulling out his gun again. My eyes went wide and I did a silent prayer that my other ability would work for me. The next thing I knew I looked down at myself and grinned as I noticed that it worked. I was invisible.

"What the Hell?!" The man exclaimed. He fired his gun to where I had been standing but I had already moved. I whipped out my other gun had the barrel against his head, just as I became visible. The man cursed again right before I pulled the trigger. The gun turned out to have a three round burst and caused blood splattered everywhere, including on myself. I closed my eyes and wiped some of it off of me while taking a moment to breathe again. Then I heard a groan around the corner. Confused, I slowly walked around the corner to where the other guy had been.

He was lying on the ground, clutching his side with one arm and trying to apply a medkit with the other.

"Shit." We said at the same time. I aimed my gun at him and he held his arms up.

"Please," he said, his voice weak. "I don't have a respawn." His words hit me like a rock. I squeezed my eyes shut, was I really going to do this? Kill someone so that I might have a chance to live? He was already helpless. "Please," he said again. I shook my head.

"I'm sorry," I said, holding back a sob. "I don't have one either." I closed my eyes and pulled the trigger again. His body slumped over and was now looking up at me with nothing in his eyes.

"Attention," a voice boomed. "There is a new kill leader." I looked down at my screen and saw my face staring back. I fell to my knees and put my head in my hands. What was I doing?!

I sat like that for a few minutes, trying to regain my composure, I knew now for sure there would be people watching me if I was the kill leader. I didn't want to look weak in front of them so I stood back up. The ring would be moving again soon. I looked back at the body and saw that the man had the same gun that I had at the start of the match.

"I'm sorry," I said again as I reached across his body and pulled it off of him, leaving behind the faulty shotgun.

"Attention. There is a new kill leader." It had been nearly half an hour since I left behind my two victims to get into the next ring. I was grateful that I had managed to avoid any other confrontation with enemies. The new kill leader was Mirage, with four kills now. The screen told me that there were only two people left alive. Me and him. I gulped. How could that many people have died already?! The next ring was getting small and I realized that I was going to have to face the Legend. I took a few more deep breaths before I moved in further. This was it. I closed my eyes and thought back to Sky who was depending on my win for her freedom. I shook out my arms and reloaded my guns.

"Now or never."

I carefully made my way inside the ring as it closed behind me, if I could get the jump on this guy, maybe, just maybe, I would stand a chance. As I walked I began to take notice of all of the blood around me. There had been a battle here. I looked around and saw a body across the way. And crouching in front of the body, looting it, Mirage.

Now, in hindsight, I should have taken into consideration the person that I was about to be fighting and what they were capable of. However, my instincts reacted before my brain could and I fell right into his trap. I shot the decoy.

"For god's sake!" I shouted. How could I be that stupid?! I had pulled my gun out ready to fire however I had no idea where to be aiming. At least, until I heard laughing behind me.

"Yeah, I hear that can get confusing." I quickly racked my brain for a way out. He had to be thinking that he was going to come out of this victorious, that I had no way out. I grinned a little when I realized that he didn't know I could go invisible. "Sorry you have to die-" he started but he closed his mouth as he watched me disappear. I was exhausted and I knew I wouldn't be able to keep myself invisible for much longer so I bolted towards the only building that was left inside the ring. A tiny shack with one door. I felt myself go visible just as I got inside so I took that moment to close the door.

"Up," I muttered. "Gotta go up."

"Another trickster huh?" I heard Mirage say from outside the building. "You do realize you've trapped yourself?" I looked down at my map,

"Yeah well at least I'm in the ring," I said back with the same level of snarkiness. I was now perched right above the door frame, this time with my wingman out and ready.

"Knock, knock," Mirage said as he began to push the door open. I saw the barrel of his gun scanning the tiny room. He slunk into the room to check all of the corners. When he didn't find me he put a hand to his hip, lowering his gun. I lined up my shot.

"Yeah," I said causing him to spin around and look up. "I hear that can get confusing." His eyes went wide as he realized he didn't have time to get his gun aimed at me again. My gun fired and the bullet missed his head, where I had been aiming, and instead went through his neck. In the few seconds before he fell over he began to make a reach for his gun. While keeping my hands attached to the wall behind me, I kicked my legs forward into his chest and knocked him to the ground which soon became covered in blood.

"Attention. Winner decided."


	3. Chapter 3

The next hour or so seemed to blur past me.

Once the game had ended I remembered running out of the house I had killed Mirage in and fell to the ground. I had remained there on my knees, still grasping the gun in my hand until the ship came down to get me. While the clean up crew began to work behind me, collecting the bodies and respawning the appropriate ones back in their ship, a medic came up to me and ushered me back into a ship to take me off the island.

He had been speaking words to me as he checked me over for injuries, but I didn't hear many of them. I was still trying to wrap my head around the past hour.

"I should be dead," I mumbled.

"What was that?" the medic asked, making me realize that I had just said that outloud.

"I should be dead." I said again, louder this time. He grinned,

"Those were some pretty sly moves you had out there," he said as he took the gun I was still holding and shoved it in the backpack. I remained silent. I felt myself zone out again as the next thing I knew I was being pushed out of the ship where I was met with a faceful of cameras and reporters. In that moment I was thankful that I still had the mask over my face so they couldn't see my emotions. As I walked down they all began shouting questions at me.

"How'd you do it?!"

"Invisibility!"

"Why didn't you have a respawn?"

"Who are you?" Most of the words blended into a jam of words, but the last question stuck out to me. I felt myself stop walking and all the reporters went quiet waiting for my response. Who was I? I thought back to what the medic had said to me in the ship. For the first time since I left that arena, I grinned.

"Call me Sly."

I found myself getting pushed through the reporters to another small room. There I was handed a card that resembled a credit card.

"Your winnings," the man said with a grin on his face. I looked down at it and suddenly remembered the deal I made.

"Don't suppose I could get it split in two?" The man laughed.

"Owe someone money do we?"

"Something like that." He took the card back and came back a second later with two.

"I hope we'll be seeing you again," he told me. "You're already quite the star, taking out Mirage and all." I nodded,

"He's okay right?" The man put a hand on my shoulder.

"He's already awake again. Not to happy though." I winced, no doubt he was pissed that his streak was ruined, and by a nobody much less.

"I should get going then," I mumbled to the man. "Thanks." He nodded once and sent me out the door again, where I was greeted by the reporters again, the crowd which seemed to have grew. I tried to push past them, I knew I needed to get out of here. I realized I still had the backpack and I gripped it harder, trying to get past the crowd. I needed to find Woodall. He would have Sky. I couldn't wait to see her. The crazy dream of ours to settle down somewhere off of Earth and away from everything might actually pan out.

The more I thought about her, the more eager I was to get out of here. However, the crowd of reporters had now grown larger, now with fans mixed in. There was a lot of yelling. I noticed some of them were wearing Mirage's merch. That made me want to get out of here faster, I could feel myself beginning to panic again.

"Hey bruddah's!" a voice boomed from somewhere in front of me. "Let's give the champion some room, aye?" The crowd seemed to obey the voice and began to shift away from me. I looked around for the person behind the voice when he gave me a pat on the shoulder. "Makoa Gibraltar," he said as he began to guide me through the crowd, which was now parting as we walked. I felt myself gulp. Another legend.

"Sly." I introduced myself, remembered the name I had just given myself.

"Some match Sly." I slowly nodded, unsure of what to say. "Good work taking out Mirage." This made me squint,

"Isn't," I started. "Isn't he your friend?" I asked recalling that I had seen the two of them in a squad together. This made Gibraltar laugh.

"Sure is. But the cocky bastard needed a reminder that he's not that tough!" He laughed again, a deep belly laugh, as he lead me through another series of doors, away from the crowd. "They shouldn't bug ya over here. You can pick up a ride down the road." I nodded,

"Thanks, uh, Mr-"

"Call me Makoa!"

"Thanks Makoa."

"Hope to see you back here sometime, hm?" I shrugged,

"We'll see." He gave me another pat on the shoulder and walked away. I sighed again as I looked around. He had been right about the crowd not following this way. I was now completely out of the complex that hosted the games. I scanned the street in front of me and made a beeline for behind the buildings, I didn't want to be seen. There were a few small houses whose backyards I began to walk through. The neighbourhood was not in great shape, but then again, not much of this planet was in great shape. As I stepped through a broken fence I noticed some clothes hanging up outside. I looked back down at my Spider-Man suit, which was now covered in blood. I yanked off a pair of pants and a shirt and quickly changed behind the fence. I still had the backpack from the game and I quickly stuffed the suit into it and zipped it up.

Now that I wouldn't be recognized I made my way back out onto the road and began to head into town. As I did I thought back to what Woodall had told me about what to do after the match. Considering he thought I would die, I didn't have much to go off of. I decided to rely on the fact that he had implanted a device in my neck when he had found me. How was I supposed to know that the only people left on Earth were slaves?

Down the street I spotted a bar. I decided I needed a drink. I slunk inside and went to sit down at the bar. It was only a little busy inside as the night was just beginning. I looked behind the counter and saw a tiny TV set up. And on it, me. It was going through the highlights of the match I had just fought.

"Look how she just stuck to the roof!" The commentator exclaimed as they looked at the footage of me back in the building outside Artillery.

"Good thing to," the other said. "She left both her guns on the ground!" they both chuckled.

"Can I get ya anything?" a man spoke in front of me, blocking my view of the TV.

"Uh," I said trying to look around him. "Whatever's strongest." The bartender grinned and reached down to get a glass.

"Quite the match today," he said while he poured out what I assumed to be vodka.

"Uh-huh."

"I wonder who they are. That Sly girl." I tipped back the shot.

"Me to." I put the glass back down and motioned for him to fill it up again. I looked back up at the screen and saw none other than Mirage. He was talking to the same reporters that were swarming me, although he seemed to be enjoying it.

"I definitely did not see that coming!" he chuckled. I found myself rolling my eyes as I took another shot.

"So what are you going to do about this Sly person? A reporter asked him.

"Retrabu-ret-ret, Revenge!" he shook his head, "If I had known that I was going to be going up against a professional I wouldn't have gone so easy on her." He said smugly. I couldn't help but snicker at that comment. "I'd like to have a rematch without the fancy suit, see how tough she really is." I squinted my eyes when he mentioned the suit, I didn't see what that had to do with anything. Beside me, there were two men talking about Mirages interview.

"I betcha twenty bucks they find Sly dead in a ditch by morning," one of them mumbled.

"Nah." the other said. "I give her a week." I looked over at the two guys.

"You think he's going to kill her?" The one man shrugged,

"I would if I was him."I decided it was time to leave the bar as the words from the two men echoed in my brain. 

"I would if I were him." I quickly paid my bill with my the card I was going to be keeping for myself. As I was walking out of the bar I noticed a man staring at me from the corner. Once I was out of the building I noticed that he was following me. I swung my bag around and quickly pulled out the pistol that I still had from the arena. I slid it into the pocket of the jeans I was wearing while still holding the handle. I turned the corner around the bar where I was met with another man.

"Woodall wants to see you," he told me. I couldn't help but feel a bit of relief. Seeing him meant I was going to see Sky and both of us would be free.

"Let's go then," I told the two men. One shook his head.

"The gun."

"Is that necessary?" He raised his eyebrows and I handed over the pistol. They led me over to a small vehicle and motioned for me to go inside. As we drove I decided it would be a smart idea if I remained quiet.

We drove to the outskirts of the city, which were in even worse shape. I realized that I was sweating when I got out of the car, my nerves were coming back.

"Wait here." One of the men who had escorted me here said. He took out my pistol and threw it on the ground. "If I were you I would leave that there." And with that sentence he drove off, leaving me alone. I sighed and looked around. There was a tiny house not to far away and I debated if I should go and knock. Or if I should go pick up my pistol. I swung my arms back and forth, I could wait.

A couple minutes later, just when I was about to go knock of the door to the building, another car pulled up. This one was a lot fancier and I had no doubt who was inside. I felt myself curling my hands into fists.

When he stepped out of the car I could tell that he was upset. And drunk. I wasn't sure why, considering I had just won him a bunch of cash.

"The winnings," he demanded, skipping the formalities. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the second card. I handed it to him and he shook his head. "All of them."

"What?!" I exclaimed. "We agreed on half." He shook his head.

"You were supposed to die!" I shook my head,

"We agreed on half!" I said again.

"That was before I bet all my cash on you losing." I felt myself gulp, he really had wanted me to die. I began to reach for the card in my pocket when I paused.

"Free me first," I demanded. He sighed and pulled out a small device from one of his pockets. He walked up to me and put it against my neck. I winced as the small device that declared me a slave was pulled out. He held a hand out. I shook my head again. "There was another part to our deal." He laughed,

"Our deal was broken the second you left that arena alive."

"Where is she?" He cracked a grin,

"You want her?" He opened up the other car door.

"Sky!" I exclaimed as I saw her in the car. When the door open she jumped out.

"Jordan!" She began to run towards me however after she had taken a few steps I heard the sound of a gun. I watched as the bullet from Woodall's gun went directly through Sky's chest.

"No!" I cried out as she fell to the ground. My mind was racing as I looked over to where my gun was on the ground. I made a bolt for it but before I had the chance to fire a shot Woodall had fired another. I felt unbelievable amounts of pain as I looked down to see the bullet had gone into my stomach. I tried to fire some of the shots back but Woodall was already back in his car and the bullets ricochet off. "Sky..." I said again as I collapsed in front of her. With my hands covered in blood, I gently picked up her head and held it. "I'm so sorry." I sobbed. I felt myself starting to get light headed, and I thought I could hear the sound of more footsteps approaching. "Help!" I exclaimed with what little energy I had left. I heard someone swear and take off again. "Please! She needs help!" I felt myself going in and out of consciousness.

Suddenly there was a person in front of me, I could only make out every other word.

"Ajay. Frontier Corps. Help. Okay." I felt myself shaking my head.

"Sky..."


	4. Chapter 4

I woke up lying in a bed of some sorts. I blinked my eyes a few times to try and adjust to the brightness of the room. As I tried to sit up I found myself groaning at the ache in my stomach. I looked down and saw some sort of tube connected to me. I followed it back and saw it was connected to a tiny drone hovering beside me. I tilted my head and it let out a series of beeps that made it sound like it was happy. I plopped my head back onto the pillow, where was I?

"Good mornin' there! Was hoping ya'd wake up soon!" I lifted my head again and saw that there was another person walking into the room. The woman had her hair in two buns on top of her head. I racked my brain trying to figure out who it was.

"Where am I? Who are you?" I asked, straining to sit up. She came over to me and helped me so that I was leaning against the wall.

"Frontier Corps building. Call me Ajay." I slowly nodded, I knew that the Frontier Corps were some sort of war relief charity. "We brought'cha here last night." My eyes widened as the memories came flooding back.

"Where's Sky?!" I exclaimed. The girl looked at me confused. "She was with me last night." I felt my heart racing. "She, oh God, he shot her!" Ajay came and put an arm on my shoulder while sitting down beside me. "No." My heart sunk. "Please."

"I'm sorry hun." I closed my eyes as the tears began to fall. I couldn't control myself and the next thing I knew I was sobbing. This had been my fault. If I would've lost the game yesterday, she would still be alive. The girl sat with me for a few minutes before standing up. "I'll go get you something to eat." She left the room and lay back down in the bed. The robot beside me made some more beeping noises and flew over top of me. It sat itself down on my chest and began whirring. I noticed as it did this the robot was heating up. I laughed a little and wiped the tears from my eyes.

"You're cute." I told the robot. It beeped happily. As it sat on me it realized that I had seen this robot before. "Shit." I said, putting together the pieces. "That was Lifeline, wasn't it?" I asked the bot. It beeped again and made a nodding motion. I ran a hand through my short hair. She was also friends with Mirage, if she figured out who I was...

"Oh D.O.C." a voice said as it entered the room. "He's such a people pleaser." Lifeline said as she came back in. She shooed him off of me. "Hot soup." she declared while handing me a bowl. I sat up and carefully took it, unsure of what to do. I was about to take a bite, as it smelled delicious, when I stopped myself.

"I can't pay you." It was true, Woodall had taken off with all of my money. She grinned and shook her head,

"No need." She motioned for me to go ahead and I caved and took a bite of the soup. I hadn't had a meal since I arrived on this planet, I did my best to try not to look as starving as I felt. Lifeline leant against the wall and looked at me curiously. A minute later she broke the silence. "You should be good as new tomorrow." I nodded. "Want to tell me who shot you?" I winced and shook my head.

"It doesn't matter."

"If he's still in the area it does." I shook my head again.

"He'll be gone by now." Probably halfway back to Earth. Ajay looked at me, seeming to want more information. I closed my eyes again. "I, I had made a deal with him about," I paused. "Something. Didn't go as planned."

"That's why you were in the Apex games," she stated simply.

"What?! How do you?" She reached to the chair beside her and grabbed my backpack. I put my head against the wall.

"Not the most casual of all outfits." She threw the backpack over to me and I quickly opened it up. I dug through the bag to make sure everything was still there. When I felt my cellphone I couldn't help but sigh in relief. Sure the thing had been dead over over seven hundred years but it was the only thing I had left from before. If I lost it, and the picture tucked away behind the phone case, I would have nothing. Ajay looked at me,

"I'm holding onto the gun for now." I nodded, unsure of what to say. I was sure that she was expecting more answers.

"He didn't think I was going to win." I finally said. "Hell I didn't either. Anyway, I guess since he thought I would die, he bet money against me. A lot. He was only supposed to take half of the winnings." She slowly nodded.

"He took all of it from you, didn't he?" I nodded once and closed my eyes. I was starting to realize just how little I actually had. Tears were filling up in my eyes again. "You should get some rest," Ajay told me. "I'll set D.O.C to give you some more pain killers." I weakly nodded. "And don't worry, your secret is safe with me." She began to walk towards the door.

"Thank you," I said before she left. She nodded once and closed the door till it was just a crack open, leaving me alone with the drone. "Some day." I said to him. He beeped twice. As he did I could feel the pain from my stomach begin to fade and I began to appreciate the medicine of this age. However it was also making me drowsy. As I began to drift off I thought I could make out some voices coming from outside my room.

"I want to talk to her," a male voice was saying.

"Not yet. She needs to rest." Ajay replied. It sounded like whoever she was talking to was about to protest. "Elliott," she warned.

"Fine." As I finally drifted off I found myself wondering who Elliott was and why he wanted to talk to me, of all people.


	5. Chapter 5

The sun was beginning to set when I woke up again. However this time, something had woken me up. I sat up and noticed that the window to the room was wide open. I looked over to the chair that was in the room. It appeared that there was a man sleeping in it. I squinted my eyes through the dark, something didn't feel right.

"Eh-hem," a voice said from beside me. I snapped my head around.

"Shit." I exclaimed. It was none other than Mirage, he was leaning up against D.O.C, who didn't seem to mind. I looked back to the chair and saw the decoy starting to fade. I felt myself beginning to panic. I sat myself up and began looking for something I could use to defend myself. When I found nothing I slunk myself into the corner. "Look man, I'm sorry, I really am, I just-." He put a finger to his lips. As he lifted his arm I made out a gun in his belt.

"Quiet! I don't want Ajay to know I snuck in here." I quickly nodded.

"Please, I, I don't want trouble," I stuttered, eyeing the gun. This made him look confused.

"Trouble?" I raised my eyebrows. Mirage looked around at the open window and then to his gun. "Oh!" he exclaimed while standing up straight. "You know, I can see how this may have come off as threatening."

"You think?" He ran a hand through his hair.

"Sorry about that. I just wanted to chat, you know?"

"About?" He laughed a little.

"About you! I'm honestly still impressed at how you took me out."

"I don't know what you're talking about." He deadpanned.

"The suit is literally on the bed right beside you." I looked over and cursed.

"About that," I started. "I am really, really sorry."

"Psh," he waved his hand in front of him. "It's fine. I mean, you kinda like, ruined a bit of my rep there, but you know, I'm me, I'll get it back."

"So," I paused for a second. "You're not mad?"

"Are you kidding! It's not like that was my first time dying!" He laughed. "Was my first time being shot in the throat however." He rubbed in neck where I had shot him, you couldn't even see a mark. "That was a little excruc-ex-exa... painful." I winced again. "But don't worry about it!"

"So why are you here than?" He grinned again.

"I have a proposition!" I raised my eyebrows. "You see, there's a champion game coming up soon right?" I slowly nodded. Champion games were only held three or four times a year. The only people aloud to participate are people who have won at least one game in the past. These games were a fan favourite. "I wasn't going to go in this one because there were only two of us and its teams of three this time around." I had a bad feeling about where this was going. "However, then you show up and I'm like, wow! She's not the worst player ever, so I thought that maybe-"

"No," I said cutting him off.

"Hang on, I wasn't done."

"No," I said again.

"But-"

"No! I'm done!" I snapped.Mirage sighed and it fell quiet for a second.

"I know about what happened."

"What?! She told you?!"

"What? No! No, I was just eav-evas, uh listening in." I put my head in my hands. "I also was the one who found you. I may have been following you." My eyes went wide. "I'm sorry I didn't get there sooner." he said. "I know what it's like to lose people." I shook my head although he did sound sincere.

"So you know why I can't go back in there." He shook his head.

"I think it gives you more of a reason to go in there!" I sighed. "Your girl," he paused. "She was your girl right?" I nodded sadly. "What would she want you to do?"

"Don't bring her into this," I said, my tone getting angry. "She's dead because of me!" I realized I had been getting louder. "I was supposed to die in there. And if I had, she would still be alive."

"That's not your fault."

"Doesn't matter." Mirage sighed.

"What about the suit than?"

"What about it?"

"Who made it?" I sighed.

"She did." This caused him to grin.

"So clearly she had wanted you to win! It was her way of keeping you safe, don't you get that? If you go back, you'll still have her with you!"

"I'm not going back." I said firmly. "Especially without a respawn."

"So I'll pay for your respawn!" he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"I can't ask you to-"

"Hell you can even stay at my place if you don't have one! We'd be like roommates! Yeah, that sounds fun! I'm a decent cook even!"

"What the hell Elliott?!" A voice exclaimed while walking through the door. It was Ajay, I felt myself sigh in relief. "I told you to stay out!" She yelled at him. He grinned sheepishly.

"I got bored." Ajay smacked him on the side of the head and then came up to me,

"You alright?" I nodded. "I think it's time for you to go." She told Mirage, who was rubbing his head.

"Yeah, yeah." As he began to walk out he paused again. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny piece of paper with an address on it. "Here. If you change your mind. Ten O'Clock tomorrow morning." I reluctantly took it. "I really do think you could be one of the greats. Not as good as me though. Obviously."


	6. Chapter 6

I spent the night tossing and turning. After Mirage had left I couldn't stop thinking about what he had said. As much as I didn't want to go back into the arena, it was the only place I had. He had offered to give me a place to stay, something I hadn't had in a while. And it wasn't like I could stay there and not join his team.

I also found that I was curious about who the other member of our team would be. He had said he had someone else. When the sun was up Ajay came into my room, carrying a bowl of oatmeal while D.O.C hovered in behind her.

"Sorry it's not that exciting of a meal today." I took the bowl.

"It's perfect." She began to walk out of the room. "Ajay?" She turned around and looked at me. "Are, are you fighting in the champion game coming up?" She grinned,

"Sure am!" she sounded excited. "Winning one of those would be a lot of extra cash for this place, meaning we could help a lot more people." I nodded,

"Makes sense."

"Why ya ask?"

"Just curious." She laughed,

"Well, I already have a full team, if that's what you was wondering." I grinned and took a bite of the oatmeal. "Once you're done that you are free to go. I'm afraid I am going to ask that you be gone by tonight however, we have some more folks who could use this room." I nodded,

"Absolutely. Thank you Ajay. For everything." I said as she was walking out the door. She flashed me a grin,

"Hope I see ya again. Next time, maybe when you aren't bleeding out, hm?" I laughed and waved goodbye. She waved back and D.O.C let out a few beeps.

I quickly finished up my breakfast and checked the clock. Nine A.M. I glanced down to the address Mirage had given me. I drummed my fingers against the table it was sitting on. If I left now I could make it there for the time he had given me. I glanced over to the suit that Sky had sewn. It was still covered in blood.

"What do you think Sky?" The suit did not respond. However I could hear Sky in my head. She had loved the Apex games. We would spend our nights watching them on the crappy little T.V I had put back together. She loved watching Bloodhound. Watching those gave a chance to escape the reality of our situation. I knew she would tell me to use them to escape my current situation.

I looked back over to the suit and sighed.

It was 10:16 when I walked up to Mirage's door. I had underestimated how far away it was. The house was in what was by far the nicest part of the planet I had seen yet. Walking through the neighbourhood reminded me of walking through the city back in my time. I looked at the white door in front of me.

"Maybe I shouldn't have come here." I was about to turn around and leave but the door swung open, even though I hadn't knocked. Mirage saw me and grinned.

"I told you she would come!" he yelled to someone in the room behind him. He looked back at me. "I kinda hyped you up and she didn't think I was that good at giving motivational speeches." He looked down at his watch. "You are a little late though, but that doesn't matter, come in, come in!" He spun around and began walking.

"Hang on." Mirage spun back around. "You'll really pay for my respawn?"

"Absolutely! Not that we'll need it though, we got this thing in the box!"

"Do you mean bag?"

"Why a bag?" he looked confused.

"Nevermind." He grinned again.

"C'mon in! I'll give ya the tour!" Mirage put his arm around my shoulder and began to guide me into his house. As I walked in I couldn't help but notice how nice the place was. And big. It looked like one of those houses they would always sell in those lotteries way back when. The front door lead to a giant living room. Beside it was the kitchen and I noticed another person sitting at the table. "And this! Is our third teammate!" Mirage told me. When I saw who it was I couldn't help but feel a little starstruck.

"You must be Sly." Wraith said while taking a drink out of a coffee cup.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you." I stuck my hand out and Mirage quickly pushed it back down.

"Rule one. Never try to shake hands with another legend. Many find it hostile." I tilted my head,

"Really?" I looked to Wraith who shrugged.

"So what changed your mind?" she asked.

"Obviously the wicked speech I gave." I shook my head,

"You call that a speech?" Mirage looked offended and I thought I saw Wraith crack a tiny grin. "Honestly though, I didn't have anywhere else to go." Wraith nodded, seeming to understand.

"So you're saying that I won just because I was the only option?" Mirage asked. I nodded. "I'm still counting it as a win." He put his arm back around my shoulders and kept leading me around. Wraith was following behind us. "Anyway! Your room is over here. I have two guest bedrooms so that we can all train together for team matches and stuff but someone," he looked back at Wraith. "Doesn't believe in letting other people know where she sleeps," he teased. I walked inside the bedroom and grinned when I saw the queen sized bed.

"Thank you."

"No problemo! That door there leads to a washroom and stuff." I nodded and I saw him look at me. "Is that all your stuff?" He asked looking at my backpack. I set it down on the bed.

"Yeah..." I was a little embarrassed but he just grinned.

"Well I'm always down for a good shopping spree." I shook my head. "Now. I totally want to see your suit. Mind if I look?"

"Sure?" I was a little confused but I zipped open my bag and threw the costume at him. "Haven't had time to wash it yet."

"This my blood?" he asked holding it up.

"Honestly, I have no idea." This caused Wraith, who was leaning on the doorframe to my room, to grin. Mirage began to examine the suit very closely.

"So how does it work?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, the whole disappearing thing. How does it do that?" My eyes went wide.

"Wait," I laughed, "You think the suit does that?" He nodded.

"Does it not?" I shook my head and he frowned. "Then how?"

"I think she's trying to say that she can turn invisible." Wraith finally spoke up. "Without the suit." I nodded and Mirage's eyes went wide.

"You can what now?" I sighed and quickly turned myself invisible. Mirage's mouth hit the floor. "But!" I became visible again. "What, what about the whole, sticky thing?!" I raised my eyebrows and looked up at the roof. It wasn't that high up. I jumped up off the ground and reached to touch the roof with my fingertips. As I did I made sure that my fingers stuck so that my feet were dangling a couple inches off of the floor. "So," Mirage started. "You're... sticky?" I jumped down and shrugged.

"I'm not to sure how it works." I looked over at Wraith who had her arms crossed in front of her.

"How did you get those abilities?" I bit my lip.

"Uh," I ran a hand through my hair. I didn't want to explain the whole 'I'm from 700 years ago' bit. They wouldn't even believe me. "Well, see, one day, I woke up in this abandoned medical building thing, and I just had them."

"You don't remember your past?" she asked, stepping closer to me.

"No! I do! It's just this, like super small, tiny little chunk out of my life that I don't remember." This caused her to frown.

"You think someone did this to you?" Mirage asked me.

"I mean I don't think I would've done it to myself."

"Was it the IMC?" Wraith asked.

"No. Maybe. I don't know." I decided to try and change the subject. "Do you mind if I have a shower super fast? I don't think I can remember the last time I had one." Mirage grinned,

"Well I mean I wasn't going to say anything about the smell..."

"Wait," Wraith cut in. "I want to know more." I felt myself look down to the floor.

"Let's let her shower." Mirage piped up while putting a hand on Wraith's shoulder. She looked like she was about to protest but he began to drag her out. "There's fresh clothes in the drawers!" He tried to close the door on the way out but it was still a crack open. "'Member how you were hesitant to tell us how you got your abilities?" I heard him say as they walked away. "We gotta be patient."

"Since when are you patient?" Wraith said back. I quietly closed the door the rest of the way. I was grateful that even after I had killed him a few days ago, Mirage was helping me. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad here.


	7. Chapter 7

Stepping out of the shower made me feel like a brand new person. I had ended up staying in it for nearly an hour, half the time trying to get off dried dirt and blood, and the other half enjoying the fact that I was having an actual shower. I hadn't had a shower with warm water since 2019.

Once I got out I went back into my room to look through the clothes. I found a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. I quickly combed my hair and left my room. I found Mirage and Wraith back in the kitchen. Something smelt amazing.

"Hungry?" Mirage asked me from the stove. I walked up and saw him making eggs.

"Sure," I said. "Thanks." I saw him grin.

"It's almost ready. You can grab some juice or something from the fridge if you want." I nodded and went to go examine my drink choices. As I did I began to realize that the food here was very different than what I had back home. I grabbed one of the cartons and held it up.

"What does lipole taste like?"

"Kinda like croku, just sweeter." Mirage answered. I frowned,

"Follow up question. Croku?" Mirage looked over at me confused.

"Ha. Very funny." I looked down at the juice and bit my lip. "Wait are you being serious?" I faked a grin. "Oh. Well. Oh man, I don't know! It's Corku!" He looked over to Wraith. I could see her thinking.

"Tangy," she finally said. I nodded and grabbed a glass. They both watched me curiously as I poured it out and took a sip. I sloshed it around in my mouth for a few seconds before swallowing.

"So?" Mirage asked.

"Reminds me of orange juice."

"What juice?!" Mirage exclaimed. I titled my head and took another sip.

"Maybe mango?"

"That one's not even a real word."

"Do you not have those?" I cut myself off before I said anymore.

"Where are you from that you do have those?!" My eyes went wide.

"Oh, uh, Earth," I said quietly.

"I'm sorry," Mirage said. "Did you say Earth?" I nodded and quickly took another sip of the juice. Maybe I should have kept that to myself. "I didn't think anyone still lived on Earth." At the counter I saw Wraith shake her head,

"Isn't it just slaves?" I put down my glass.

"Yeah." Wraith and Mirage exchanged looks.

"You were a?" Mirage asked. I nodded and looked down, embarrassed. It seemed that Wraith noticed,

"That's nothing to be ashamed about. It's not like you had control over it." I nodded and it fell silent for a few seconds.

"So that guy..." Mirage started. "The one who shot you?"

"Technically he owned me." Mirage whistled.

"Wow." I looked down. "But not anymore?"

"No. We made a deal that if I won..." I sighed. "If I won me and Sky would go free in exchange for some of the winnings."

"And that didn't work out." I nodded again. Sayings Sky's name out loud felt painful. It went quiet again.

"Is something burning?" I asked sniffing the air. Mirage spun back around to the stove, where he had forgotten about his eggs.

"Shit!"

~~~~~~~

"Okay. So the champion game is in twenty nine days." Mirage explained. The three of us were sitting around his kitchen table eating. "That means we got twenty eight days to get ready." He looked over at me. "And after actually watching your footage from the last game, you're going to need all the time you can get."

"Hey!" I exclaimed. Mirage rolled his eyes and picked up a tiny remote to his T.V, which we could make out from the table.

"About twenty minutes into the match, after the first ring closed, we can see you here, sticking your hand into it. For no good reason." I opened my mouth to protest, but watching the footage of me doing exactly that caused me to sigh,

"I was curious," I mumbled.

"Not to mention the fact that you had no idea how to handle any of those weapons," Wraith cut in.

"Or jump out of the ship."

"Or keep track of your guns."

"Or the fact that you tried to fight someone with a mozambique."

"Or-"

"Okay!" I exclaimed. "I get it. I suck." Mirage nodded jokingly. "But." I started. "I do remember someone calling me a professional during the interview after the game." Mirage put a hand on his head and faked a grin.

"You saw that?"

"'If I would've known I was dealing with a professional, I would've hit the ground in ten seconds instead of five!'" I said mocking him. He put a hand over his heart, looking hurt. Wraith had a tiny grin. "So then, where do we start?"

~~~~~~~~

"Okay. So right here is the pile of guns that you are not allowed to pick up, ever," Mirage was saying to me. We were outside in his backyard where he had a bit of a shooting range. I looked over at the pile and saw the Mozambique sitting on top. I also saw every type of sniper they provided in the arena. "Now this pile." Mirage said motioning over to the next one. "These are, iffy, at least for someone like you."

"And what is that supposed to mean?" I asked, trying to defend myself.

"Shit for aim."

"Right."

"And this last pile," his face lit up. "These are the best of the crop. The cream of the best. Wait." I laughed and went to pick one of them up. "Ah. Wise choice my young muse. The Peacekeeper." I rolled my eyes at the comment before examining it. I knew it was a shotgun. "Here, try shooting one of these." he pointed his arm out and I watched as a decoy of Mirage ran into the field. "Since I know how much you love shooting them."

"Ha," I remarked and took aim. However, as I fired it appeared that I underestimated how much recoil there would be when I pulled the trigger and the next thing I knew, I was on my ass. Mirage started laughing. "I knew that was going to happen!" he exclaimed, laughing even harder. "I was going to warn you but that was much funnier."

"Thanks," I huffed. He offered me a hand and helped me back up. He took the gun and I brushed off my pants.

"You were holding it okay, your stance was just super bad." Mirage held the gun up to demonstrate. "See how my feet are actually apart?" I shook my head and grabbed the gun back. I mimicked his pose. "And bend your knees!" He sent out another decoy.

This one faded as the bullets went through it.

"Not bad," Wraith commented stepping outside. I grinned.

"Yup," Mirage said. "The power of a great teacher." Wraith and I both rolled our eyes.

"My favorite is the Prowler," she went over to the good pile of guns. "Especially if you can find a select fire." She handed me the weapon.

"Select fire makes it full auto, right?" She nodded. "Ha!" I exclaimed. "I know things!"

"But can you put the attachment on the gun?" Mirage asked, throwing one at me.

"Uh."

~~~~~

"You don't seem to have much control over your powers," It was a few days later and I was now with Wraith.

"Especially the invisibility." Mirage added from the couch. I nodded,

"Yeah, I find that the more frequently I try to use it, the harder it gets to maintain for long. If at all."

"When I," Wraith started but paused as if to think about her next choice of words. "With me," she continued. "They were constant. Instead working to maintain it, it's more working to keep it under control."

"That sounds like it must be hard." She had no response to this. "So how did you do it?"

"Practice." I nodded. "I'll try to help you if I can but really you are going to have to find what works best for you."

"Then I guess I should get started."


	8. Chapter 8

It had been just about two weeks since I first arrived at Mirage's. Since then I had almost begun to not suck with the weapons. I least, according to him. Personally I felt like I had improved a lot. I was even hitting the targets most of the time. When I wasn't practicing my aim I was working on improving my invisibility and stickiness. I had found that I was now able to travel across the roofs and walls much faster than I was before. I really did feel like Spider-Man. We had also spent one of the days trying to teach me how to get on and off the zip lines quickly. I had gotten a little faster but I had yet to master the skydiving part of it all.

Staying with Mirage hadn't been as bad as I thought it was going to be. I was actually beginning to enjoy his company, he reminded me of one of my friends from before. It was also nice having someone to joke with, something else I hadn't had in a long time.

Wraith was a hard person to try and get to know. Mirage had told me that she had been experimented on as well and that was why she had a lot of questions for me that first day. However this also kept us at a distance. It seemed neither of us wanted to ask the other about what had happened. I was fine not thinking about it. Ever since I had thawed a year ago I was trying my best to move on. I knew it would do me no good if I kept dwelling on the thought of a life I never got to live. During that first year I had spent most of my time trying to keep myself alive. But now that I was free again, I found myself going back to these thoughts more and more. 

I realized that I did want to find more about what had happened to me as well as what had happened to my family and friends. However, I knew that if I wanted to do this, I was going to need help. And more money. I came to the conclusion that I would try and win a few more games and then maybe, maybe if I had money and my own place to call home I would starting looking for answers. I told myself that no one needed to know about who I was.

That didn't go according to plan.

We were outside again training for the day. Wraith was teaching me some self defense moves and we were sparing while Mirage and his decoys cheered us on. Even though she was going easy on me, I still found myself kicked to the ground, face first.

"Ouch!" Mirage exclaimed for me while taking a sip of his drink. I wiped my hand across my face and noticed blood coming from my nose.

"I'll be right back," I told them. As I stood up off the ground to go inside however, my phone that I was keeping in my pocket since it helped me feel more normal, slid out of my pocket, without me knowing. When I came back outside after I had cleaned off my face I saw both of them on the ground, looking at it. It also appeared that they had found the picture I had tucked away behind the case. I closed my eyes, that picture itself was enough to bring up many questions.

"This doesn't feel right." Wraith said as she grabbed it from Mirage.

"Wait!" I exclaimed running up to them, feeling nervous about it ripping. "Please be careful with that!" I snatched the phone out of Mirage's hand and made a reach for the picture but Wraith held it back. I looked over at the phone and sighed when I saw that it was okay.

"What's going on here Sly?" Mirage asked, standing up.

"Something tells me you're not who you say you are," Wraith said, crossing her arms in front of her. "Why does that sign in the picture say 2019?" She took a step towards me.

"The girl in that picture doesn't look like a slave to me," Mirage said, stepping closer as well. I held the phone over my chest, protectively.

"It, uh." I started. I felt myself backing up into the wall. "Does it matter?" Mirage shook his head.

"If were are going to be a team it does!" He ran a hand through his hair. "Teammates can't lie to each other."

"I wasn't lying! I was a slave!" I looked down at my dead iPhone, I could feel tears building up in my eyes. "Just, not for that long. After I woke up with the powers."

"So what is this then?" Wraith asked, holding up the picture.

"And why 2019?" Mirage questioned. I sighed.

"Because that's when it was taken." This caused both of them to look confused. While her guard was down, I snatched the picture back out of Wraith's hands. I looked it over and sighed. "This was a New Year's party." I grinned at the memory. We wanted to try to do the thing where you watched Star Wars at the right time so that at Midnight the Death Star blew up. The picture was snapped the moment we had gotten it right. Me and my older brother both had our hands in the air, our grins wide.I carefully folded the picture and tucked it away behind the phone case again. Mirage and Wraith were looking at me very curiously.

"Ok," Mirage finally said. "I've decided I don't believe you."

"I wish I didn't either." I spun the phone around a few times over in my hands. Debating how to go about handling this situation. I decided that the truth was the right away to go, I didn't want to get kicked out of here, it was the only thing I had. "I was born in the year 2000." I finally said. I saw Mirage about to say something and I held a finger up. "When I was 18 something... happened. One second I was there. Living my life. Then, all of a sudden I woke up, somewhere else." I slid the phone back into my pocket. "I was in some sort of machine. I guess it froze me?" I scratched my head. "And when I got out... everything was different." Saying this all out loud again was hard. Without realizing, I had tears rolling down my cheeks.

"Sly..." Mirage started.

"I thought when I found people still on Earth," I went on. "I thought that it might be okay." I wiped a few tears from my eyes. "Everything I knew was gone." Before I knew what was happening I felt someone wrap their arms around me.

"I'm so sorry kid," Mirage said, hugging me tighter. I let myself burrow into his shoulder and I began to sob.

"Why didn't you say anything?" Wraith asked, keeping her distance. I let go of Mirage and wiped more of the tears off of my face.

"I, I don't know." I shook my head. "I guess I didn't want pity." Wraith nodded, seeming to understand. I used my sleeve to get the last of my tears, laughing as I did so. "I don't usually cry this much." Mirage grinned a little. "I've only ever told that to one other person." It fell silent as I said that.

"So what's your favourite part about our time?" Mirage asked, seeming to want to break the awkwardness. I thought for a second,

"I mean space is pretty cool." I grinned a little. "I had always wanted to go to space when I was little, but they didn't send many people. To much money."

"Really?" Wraith asked. I nodded,

"Yeah. And you needed to be like, really smart. I never did excel in math."

"So what did you do?" Mirage asked, seeming to be getting more interested.

"I was still a student. At University."

"University? I don't think I've ever met a single person who went to one of those."

"It seems that in the future universities are a lot more specific for certain jobs and stuff."

"The future?"

"Yeah, I basically time traveled."

"But still, this is the present," Mirage pointed out. "If anything you're just from the past."

"Yeah, but like, I'm now in the future."

"What did you study?" Wraith cut in, seeming not to care for this debate. I grinned.

"English."

"Like the language?" Mirage asked, looking confused.

"No! Like books and writing and reading and stuff!"

"Sounds like a fake thing to study, but okay." I laughed a little and it fell silent again. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was late in the afternoon.

"I think I need a drink," I declared while going back inside.

"I second that!" Miraged piped up, following me. "I just bought a case of cradaminu ale!"

"What ale?" As I asked Mirage stopped dead in his tracks and spun around to face me.

"Oh my god! It finally makes sense why you don't know what fruit we have!"


	9. Chapter 9

"I got you a present!" Mirage exclaimed as he walked into my room. I was sitting crossed legged on my bed fiddling with the dead phone. It was now only a few days till the game. I was glad that after I had actually told them my whole story that the dynamic between us did not change. Although Mirage had been asking some weird questions every now and then. Yesterday he asked me if I had ever eaten a duck.

"What is it?" I asked, looking at the rather large box he had in his hands. He set it down on my bed.

"Okay, before you open it. Quick question. You don't want your current suit to be ruined."

"That was not a question."

"Right. But still true." I nodded. "So, I figured since there may be a tiny chance that you'll I don't know, get shot again, it would ruin the outfit."

"Mirage is there a new suit in the box?" He grinned.

"I had it specially made!" I opened up the lid to the box and began to examine it. The material was a lot nicer and more durable. "I even hooked up the comms that we all use for the game!" I picked it and held it in front of me.

"This looks totally different!" I exclaimed. "Where's the web?" The suit was just a shade of red with a spider still on the chest.

"Was that part of the decoration?"

"It's Spider-Man!"

"Who now?" I sighed, a deep sigh and grabbed a marker from my bedside table. "Wait, what are you doing?" I had begun to scribble on the lines in the permanent ink. "That was like," he paused. "A lot of money!" I ignored him.

"There!" I proclaimed once I was done. "Now it is more accurate." Mirage shook his head and walked out the door.

"At least try it on!" he yelled as he walked out.

"Fight me Mirage!" I yelled back.

"I told you to call me Elliott!" I chuckled and began to change.

Once I had the suit on I made my way into the kitchen were he and Wraith were sitting.

"I told you it didn't look good without the lines," Wraith said to Mirage. He ignored her.

"How does it feel?"

"Pretty good," I spun around, demonstrating the whole suit. "Thanks for this." I added. Mirage nodded. 

"Now. The next order of business. The games are in three days. Which means the party is in two." My eyes went wide.

"Party?"

"Well, more just a dinner party but yeah. What are you going to wear?" I looked over at Wraith.

"Every night before a champion game a group of us get together and hang out." I slowly nodded. 

"Then you all just kill each other the next day?"

"You didn't do that back in your day?" Mirage asked with a smirk.

"Well when we killed our friends in a blood sport we called it Fortnite." He squinted his eyes and I laughed. "That was a joke. A good one, by the way."

"Right," Mirage said, drawing out the word. "Anyway, since my squad won the last game I'm hosting. Well that and both Bloodhound and Wraith refuse to host." Wraith shrugged. "I've got most of it all ready to go already, really we just need to go over your whole thing."

"And what does that mean?"

"Well, it's just some of these people they can be a little, what's the word?"

"Murdery?" I suggested.

"Exactly!"

"Wouldn't it be more important to prepare her for what they can do in the ring?" Wraith asked.

"That's probably a good idea," I agreed.

"Fine," Mirage pouted. "Just so Sly here doesn't go running into a cloud of gas."

~~~~~~~~~

"As I hear you know, Lifeline is quite the medic," Wraith was saying to me. I nodded,

"Without her I would be dead."

"Well it's a serious advantage for anyone to have her on their team. If we are fighting her squad and we lose track of one of the people, we risk the chance of them getting fully healed like nothing happened."

"Plus that little shield her robot has," I added, recalling what I had seen from the few matches I had watched. Wraith nodded.

"If you have a clear shot on that thing you take it."

"On D.O.C?!" She nodded. "But he's so cute!"

"She knows how to fix him."

~~~~~~

"Now you've already met Ajay," Mirage said. "So I don't see to much problem between you and her."

"Yeah she seems nice."

"She can be a little intimidating if she's had a lot to drink however." I laughed a little but Mirage shook his head. "Like if you thought her accent was strong when she's sober..."

~~~~~~~

"Pathfinder is very mobile," Wraith explained. "It's important that you keep track of where he is as much as possible. Always be checking areas that we wouldn't be able to get into. Chances are he knows we can't get to it and grappled himself up there."

"Good thing I can get to those places as well." This comment made Wraith grin a little.

"Just keep a bit of distance between you and him. That grapple hurts." My eyes went wide.

"That thing can hook into a person?!"

"Oh yeah," Mirage piped in from the couch. "Once he dragged me a good thirty feet because he was chasing my teammate and I couldn't get free."

~~~~~~~~

"Honestly we really only invite Pathfinder because one, he makes a mean Leviathan stew, and second, one time we didn't invite him because of the whole robot thing and the thing spent the entire game the next day with a sad face on his little screen."

"That's so mean!" I exclaimed.

"He's a robot!"

"Exactly! It's so cool!" Mirage shook his head,

"Anyway, he'll usually says some weird things and will probably ask you some intense questions."

"Not because he's trying to insult you though," Wraith commented from the table. "He just doesn't understand much about human social cues."

"Right."

~~~~~~~~

"Gibraltar is a defensive player," Wraith explained. "He'll do anything to protect him team."

"Giant shield dome thing right?"

"Yes. It's best to try and fight his team if we can split them up. That way they all aren't covered by the dome." I nodded. "It also decreases the chances of him dropping an airstrike if his team doesn't have a place to take cover."

"He can drop an airstrike? Is that even allowed?"

"With sponsors it is. Same kind of deal with the people that drop Lifeline those care packages." I whistled,

"Maybe we should get some of these sponsors."

~~~~~~~

"The man is basically a giant teddy bear. If you are having trouble when anyone at the party and Wraith and I aren't around, I would try to go hang out with him." I smiled,

"Yeah, I met him briefly, he seems nice."

"Wait when?"

"After the match. He helped me get through the crowd of reporters." Mirage grinned,

"Yeah, he's really good at crowd control. It's the voice."

"He also called you a cocky bastard," I added, remembering the conversation we had.

"What?!"

"He's not wrong," Wraith added.

~~~~~~~~

"Caustic. He's one to watch out for. Especially in small spaces. Those gas traps of his seem to be getting smaller and deadlier each match."

"Does it hurt?"

"Does what hurt?"

"The gas."

"Of all the ways you can die in that arena in a few days, his traps will by far be the most painful."

"That's reassuring."

~~~~~~~~~

"Okay so Caustic. I'll be honest he scares the crap out of me." I raised my eyebrows and Mirage went on. "I don't know why he even comes to these parties, all he does is complain and threaten us and drink to much but somehow never is drunk."

"Sounds like every frat boy I have ever met."

"A frat boy?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Right. Anyway. We'll try to make sure you aren't left alone with him. If that does happen, just," Mirage paused to think. "Don't let him get into your head."

~~~~~~~~~

"Bangalore is a highly trained soldier. I haven't seen her miss a shot," Wraith exclaimed.

"Did she fight in that... war, thing, that happened here?"

"She did." I felt myself grin.

"That's wicked."

"Except she fought for the IMC," Mirage added. I looked at him confused. "Around here they are seen as the bad guys."

"Anyway," Wraith went on. "Make sure that you have cover when fighting her and if you are going to attack, make sure your safety is off or she will never let you live it down." She looked over to Mirage.

"That happened one time!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Rule one with Bangalore. Don't touch her."

"Why would I-"

"And rule two, no flirting."

"Something tells me you've learnt that from experience." Mirage crossed his one leg over the other and winced. I laughed.

"Anyway. She comes off as very stern but if you are on her good side she's okay. At least, that's what I'm told."

"Maybe she would like you more if you stopped trying to flirt with her." Wraith commented.

"I can't help if my charm comes off as flirty!"

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Lastly, Bloodhound. It's a good idea to assume that they know where you are at all times." I raised my eyebrows and Wraith went on. "They can and have tracked us all the way across the arena."

"Impressive," I muttered.

"If they're on your team it is. Since they're not, that means we have to be extra careful about how we move."

"Have you tried walking backwards?" I suggested.

"Why?"

"You know, then our footprints would make us look like we're going in the other direction!" Wraith put a hand on her head.

"That's not-"

"Hang on Wraith I think the kid might be onto something." Mirage defended me.

"Fine. You two walk backwards. We'll see who lives longer."

~~~~~~~~~

"Hope you like birds," Mirage said.

"Why?"

"That crow goes everywhere with them. Everywhere! I wouldn't be surprised if they showered together!"

"I don't think he showers with a crow." Mirage held a finger up,

"Not he!" I tilted my head. "I'm pretty sure the only thing anyone knows about Bloodhound is that they don't respond to he or she and get slightly annoyed when you do. And it's not a good idea to annoy Bloodhound"

"Got it. They and them pronouns. Wait, have you ever seen them without the mask?!"

"Not once. They come to every one of these parties and has yet to eat or drink anything!"

"The crow eats," Wraith casually mentioned from the table. "Really enjoys the chips Gibraltar brings when he makes his salsa."

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"So." Mirage said. We were all sitting around eating supper. "How much about yourself are you going to be sharing with the others?" he asked. I shrugged,

"I hadn't really thought about that."

"Well let's start easy. First off, I know that they all also think it is your suit that lets you be invisible and stuff, so I say we keep it that way." I nodded. "Next, are you going to wear the mask to the party?" I took a bite of my food and thought.

"I don't think so. It was more of a style choice than masking who I am choice." Mirage grinned,

"Does that mean I can pick out an outfit for the party for you?"

"Depends on the outfit." He grinned again. "And as for the other part... I don't know."

"If you want to find answers these guys are probably your best bet," Wraith suggested.

"I know, it's just, I don't know, a lot."

"Not to mention the publicity you could have if you went live with that story! Think of the fans!" Mirage said excitedly. I sighed,

"Maybe eventually. Not at the party though. I don't even know these people."

"That's fair," Mirage said while taking a drink. "I'm thinking that black jumpsuit?"


	10. Chapter 10

It was a few hours before the dinner party when Mirage came running into the kitchen. I was still in the suit Mirage had bought me as I had been training with Wraith while Mirage slept in.

"The teams are live!" He exclaimed, still wearing his pajama pants.

"What?" I asked.

"They never announce the champion teams until the day before."

"Right. And?"

"And," he said dragging out the word. "No one knew that we were teaming up!" I couldn't help but grin a little. "The people already love us!"

"Yeah?"

"Oh yeah. Everyone thought that we hated each other since well, you know, you killed me and ruined my life long streak." I winced. "But now! They're excited!"

"You know I'm on the team as well, right?" Wraith commented while stirring her coffee.

"Yeah but that happens all the time," he said with a wink.

"Did the other legends know?" I asked, causing Mirage to grin again.

"Nope."

"You actually kept your trap shut for that long?" Wraith teased. Mirage stuck his tongue out at her.

"Anyway. My fans are dying to see us together." I grinned a little, trying to look as excited as Mirage was feeling. "Want to do a video?"

"Are you like a YouTuber or something?"

"I have no idea what that is." I scoffed, trying to sound offended. "What about a picture?" he suggested. I sighed.

"Fine." Mirage grinned again and held up his phone. Even I had to admit that the phones that they used these days were a lot cooler than my dead one. The device simply attached to a band on his wrist and when picked up, it turned into a tiny holographic screen.

"You gonna put the mask on?" Mirage asked before he snapped the photo. I looked down at my suit. I didn't really plan on keeping up the whole mystery act. I shook my head.

"You going to put a shirt on?"

"And cover all this?!" I rolled my eyes. "Say cheese!" I grinned as he took the picture.

"At least that saying is still a thing," I said while Mirage looked the photo over.

"There," Mirage proclaimed as he sent the photo. I had yet to learn about social media in the future. "Now what time is it?" He asked looking around.

"Nearly one."

"One?! People are going to be here at five! I have to get ready!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Now don't we clean up nice?" Mirage said once I walked into the room. I grinned a little and looked down at myself. I had decided to go with the jumpsuit that he had suggested and I even took a little time to do my hair.

"Thanks," I mumbled while looking at him. He had dressed up in a fancy suit. "I'm a little nervous." I admitted. Mirage waved his hand,

"Psh. They're going to love you."

"When do they usually get here?" I asked.

"The party starts at five." Wraith said as she walked into the room. I noticed that even she had gotten a little dressed up for the occasion. "Which means everyone will show up around five thirty but Pathfinder will be here right at five." Mirage looked down at his watch.

"I wouldn't be surprised if he was out there already."

"So why doesn't he come in?" I asked, curious.

"According to him he can't come in until the party officially starts." I grinned a little,

"That's kinda cute." Mirage looked over at the door and rolled his eyes.

"You can come in!" he yelled. There was no response. Mirage sighed and went over to the door and opened it up. I followed closely behind him. Sure enough on the other side of the door stood the robot. In his hands he was carrying a large pot of what I assumed to be his famous Leviathan stew.

"Greetings Mr. Witt," Pathfinder said. "It is only four fifty nine." Mirage shook his head and took the pot from his hands. The robot glanced over at me and the screen on his chest changed from a smiley face to an exclamation point. "You are Sly!" he announced. I gave him a tiny wave. "It's very nice to meet you."

"Back at you." As I said this the screen turned back into a smiley face.

"I cannot wait to destroy you tomorrow!" My eyes went wide.

"Wha-" I started but was cut off by the bot walking inside.

"It is now five o'clock," he declared while I stood at the door looking dumbfounded. Mirage came over and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Told you."

"Uh-huh."

"Mind closing the door?"

"Uh-huh." Mirage snickered as I shut the door. I followed him back into the kitchen.

"Hi Miss Wraith," Pathfinder said as he walked in. She nodded in response. I sat down at the table and watched him closely, hoping he wouldn't notice. He did. "I believe your new teammate, Sly is staring at me," he said to Mirage.

"Sorry," I mumbled while casually looking away. "Haven't met that many robots before," I paused. "No offence." I quickly added.

"I cannot take offence to a fact that is true,"

"Right." In the corner I saw Mirage holding back a laugh.

"Can I ask you a question Miss Sly?" Pathfinder asked.

"Sure, since you asked so nicely."

"Would I be able to meet the human that crafted the suit you wore in the arena?" I frowned. Mirage looked as he if was about to step in and say something but I held up a hand to tell him I had it under control.

"I wish you could buddy." The screen on his chest featured a question mark. "She was killed." The screen changed to a sad face.

"I am very sorry to hear that." I nodded. "Were you two close?" he asked.

"Very."

"I hear loss can be a very troubling emotion. Would you like a hug?" I felt myself smile a little.

"Thanks, but I'm okay." Pathfinder changed his screen back to a smiling face. I stood up out of the chair to go and grab a drink when there was another knock on the door. Mirage jogged over to open it.

"Good evening ladies!" he said while he held the door open. "Don't we look lovely tonight!" In walked Ajay and behind her was Bangalore. Suddenly I felt nervous again, Bangalore was one of the greatest players in the Apex games. I noticed that Ajay had dressed up almost as fancy as Mirage while Bangalore was as casual as Wraith. When Ajay saw me her face lit up.

"Sly!" she exclaimed. "It's good to see ya again!" I grinned,

"Nice to see you to." She came up and gave me a small hug.

"You look a lot better than the last time I saw ya."

"It's amazing how different one can look when they're not dying," I said with a grin on my face. She laughed,

"Guess we can test that out again tomorrow hm?" She said with a wink before looking over to Bangalore.

"You two haven't met have you?"

"I don't believe we have," she said while sticking her hand out to me. "I'm Bangalore." I grabbed her hand and shook it, as I did I noticed that she had quite the grip.

"Sly."

"Pretty impressive first match Sly," she said while putting her arm around Lifeline's waist.

"Thanks, uh," I felt myself getting confused when I saw them also holding hands. "Are you guys..." I started. "Uh." Ajay grinned.

"Why?" Bangalore asked, sounding defensive. "You one of those old school people who has a problem with that?" My eyes went wide.

"What? No! Of course not!"

"Sly likes girls as well!" Pathfinder proclaimed as he walked into our conversation. I looked over at him bewildered,

"Dude!" I exclaimed. This caused both Bangalore and Ajay to chuckle. "I was just curious cause aren't you guys on, like, opposite teams tomorrow?" Bangalore nodded.

"We started going out after we had both been in the games for a while," she explained.

"Which means we had already gotten the killing each other part out of the way," Ajay finished. I slowly nodded, trying to process. Ajay noticed. "It's a little weird, we know." I shook my head,

"Of all the weird things I've heard since I got on this planet, that is very low on the list."


	11. Chapter 11

It was a few more minutes before the rest of the guests arrived. I had took a moment to go back into my room to take a breather and try to settle my nerves. There was a soft knock on my door.

"You okay?" Wraith asked, sticking her head in. I nodded and adjusted my hair in the mirror.

"Yeah. I've never really been good at meeting new people. And the fact that two of them have already mentioned how they can't wait to kill me tomorrow isn't really helping." Wraith let out a small laugh.

"They're just being playful."

"I know. Still weird though." She nodded, agreeing. From inside my room we could hear the doorbell ring. Wraith looked over at me,

"We probably should go say hi."

"Right. Yeah. Okay." I took a deep breath and followed Wraith out the door.

"Bloodhound!" Mirage exclaimed just as Wraith and I were walking out back into the kitchen. The fighter nodded in response. "Well come on in!" As they did I noticed that they were wearing exactly what they would be wearing in the arena. Mirage led Bloodhound into the kitchen where he saw me and grinned. "Bloodhound, I would like you to meet my new protege, Sly." I held up a hand.

"It is an honor to meet you," they replied while bowing their head down. I tried to mimic the response which caused Mirage to laugh. "I am looking forward to our battle tomorrow." Bloodhound said and as they did I took notice of how unique the voice changer in their helmet was.

"Uh, yeah," I stuttered.

"You seem nervous," the hunter noticed. I grinned a little,

"Yeah, I'll be honest, it's really cool to meet you." They nodded again. "My girlfriend-" As I said that I felt myself stutter. "Uh, she was a big fan."

"Perhaps one of these days I can meet her." I faked a grin,

"No, she uh," I sighed. "She died."

"I'm sorry flelagi," they said while putting a hand on my shoulder. I found myself at a loss of words.

"Hey Blood," Ajay said from the kitchen. This caused the hunter to remove their hand from my shoulder to go and greet her. I stood still for a second and Mirage came up to me.

"You doing okay?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah." I nodded a few times while regaining my composure. All of a sudden I felt something wiz past my head. I let out a tiny yelp as I felt whatever it was land on my head. My eyes went wide. "Um." I tried to look up. "Mirage..." I started. He had a hand over his mouth covering his laugh "Is, is there a crow... on my head?" He nodded a few times, his grin getting wider and wider. I bit my lip. "Okay..."

"Arthur!" I heard Bloodhound exclaim from behind me. "I am terribly sorry," they said while putting out their hand for the crow to hop on. The crow chirped a few times happily as he bounced off my head onto Bloodhound. Once I felt the bird gone I quickly ran my fingers through my hair, trying to get out any feathers. I laughed awkwardly.

"It's fine."

"He only ever does that to people he likes," Bloodhound explained as the crow went from their hand to their shoulder. I grinned a little.

"At least someone here likes you," Mirage said with a playful smile while nudging my shoulder. I smacked his arm.

"Care for a drink Sly?" Ajay asked me from the kitchen.

"God yes." I mumbled, causing Mirage to chuckle again. "Thank you." I said once she handed me a glass of wine. There was another knock on the door as I took a sip. Mirage motioned for me to follow him to greet whoever was next.

"Hey bruddah!" Gibraltar exclaimed once the door was swung open, he was wearing a shirt that reminded me of a Hawaiian shirt and was carrying a bowl of what I assumed to be salsa . "Look who I found lurking around outside!" He said pushing forward who I recognized to be Caustic. He glared at Gibraltar and shook his head.

"Well Mokoa, Caustic, I would like you to meet my newest teammate, Sly!" Mirage declared.

"Aye!" Gibraltar exclaimed. "Good to see you again!" As he walked in he gave me a pat on the shoulder with the arm that wasn't carrying the food. I glanced over at Caustic who had a blank expression on his face. He simply nodded once and walked past me, nearly brushing my shoulder before I had the chance to say anything to him. I saw Mirage look around at everyone and he I saw him counting.

"Looks like that's everyone! Who doesn't have a drink yet?" I looked around at all the people in the place I had been calling home for almost a month. They were all chatting with one other and I stood there awkwardly, unsure of what to do. I looked over and saw Mirage in a conversation with Bangalore and Ajay while Wraith was talking to Bloodhound and Pathfinder. I bit my lip, debating if I should go and try to join one of those conversations. I took another sip of my wine and elected for sitting to the side, away from everyone. Their conversations lasted for a few minutes until there was a natural pause. During this pause I felt a few people look over at me.

"So Sly," Gibraltar started. "Where you from?"

"Oh," I said, noticing how now everyone was watching. "Nowhere."

"You have to have come from somewhere," Bangalore pressed. I shook my head,

"Earth." She nodded,

"Alright. That really is nowhere." I grinned a little while a few people around the room had some confused looks on their faces, no doubt putting together what Wraith and Mirage had figured out that first day.

"Got any family?" Gibraltar asked, changing the subject. I shook my head. He nodded.

"How old are you?" Pathfinder asked.

"What year is it?" I said jokingly, causing a few people to grin a little, especially Mirage, but it seemed to confuse the robot. "I'm nineteen. Almost twenty."

"Young," Caustic noted, speaking his first words to me since he arrived. "It always does intrigue me testing on younger subjects," he said with no hint of joking in his voice. My mouth opened to say something but no words came out.

"Caus," Ajay said while I tried to think of something to say. "Ya just got 'ere." I looked over and grinned,

"I mean you did threaten me within the first like three seconds of getting here." A few people laughed.

"That's really the only thing that goes on at these things," Mirage said and a few people nodded, agreeing with him. I smiled again. In the kitchen a timer went off and Mirage spun his head around. "Alright! Pork Chops are done!" Everyone made their way over to the table to sit down. I picked out a seat beside Wraith and sat down. On the other side of me, Bloodhound sat down and their bird hopped onto the table. All of the food on the table was making me hungry. Everything smelt amazing, even though I had never tried half of the stuff sitting in front of me. Mirage set down the pork chops and I reached to put one on my plate.

"Bet you don't get to many of these back on Earth," Gibraltar chuckled. I grinned,

"It has been a while." I said as everyone piled more food onto their plates and begun eating. "I would die for a good steak right about now though." As I said this everyone stopped what they were doing. "What?" I looked over at Mirage who was shaking his head while trying to hold back a grin.

"Like from a cow?" Ajay asked. I slowly nodded.

"Yeah-" I saw Wraith shaking her head no, "I mean, no."

"You really suck at this kid," Mirage commented while putting a hand on his head.

"What?!" I was genuinely confused. "Are those hard to get here?" Everyone kept staring at me before Pathfinder finally spoke up.

"Cows officially went extinct four hundred and twelve years ago!" he said as it was a fun fact. My eyes went wide.

"Oh..." I said as I realized what I had done. "Well, shit!"


	12. Chapter 12

"Hold on," I held up a finger. "You're telling me that cows went extinct but pigs didn't?!"

"Cows were unable to adapt to the atmospheres on the new planets humans colonized," Pathfinder said. "Pigs evolved very quickly to meet the new demands of a new planet."

"Well that's a kick in the pants." I took a sip of my drink and looked around at the confused faces. 

"Who exactly are you Sly?" Bloodhound was the first to ask. I clenched my teeth and faked a grin.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"I think you may have to kid," Mirage said. I closed my mouth and ran my tongue over my teeth, debating what to do.

"Alright," I decided. "Why not." I went to take a drink but I noticed that my glass was empty. I looked over at Mirage who was sitting beside Bloodhound. "Pardon my reach," I said to Bloodhound as I reached past them and grabbed Mirage's drink. They slunk back in the chair as I did so. I grabbed the glass and downed it all in one gulp and bit back the sting from the strong alcohol. Everyone around the table was silent. "So," I started as I poured out another glass of wine. "I was born in the year 2000." I took a sip as all the legends around me reacted.

"That was seven hundred and twenty three years ago!" Pathfinder exclaimed. "The human lifespan is not that long!" I nodded,

"I know. Long story short when I was eighteen something happened, don't know what, don't have memory of it, but next thing I knew I was in this machine thing and it was seven hundred a years later."

"What kind of machine?" Bangalore was the first to speak.

"A cryo-" Mirage started. "Cry- cy, oh, uh."

"You were cryogenically frozen?" Caustic finished for him. I nodded,

"Crazy right?"

"Who would do that?" Ajay asked. I shrugged,

"That's part of the mystery. The place I was in was long abandoned, it seemed that the machine malfunctioned and spat me out." I took another sip of wine while each of the legends looked between each other.

"She's telling the truth," Mirage said.

"How do you know?" Bangalore asked.

"I believe her," Bloodhound spoke up. I looked over at them and nodded.

"It's unbelievable I know, there's still a part of me that wishes it wasn't real."

"Were you on Earth when you woke up?" Gibraltar asked. I nodded,

"Yeah. You can probably imagine how well it went over when I ran into the other people there."

"I'm sorry bruddah." I shrugged again,

"Nothing you can do."

"So why join the games than?" Bangalore asked.

"Ah, well, I had made a deal with the slave owner that if I would win he would get some of the winnings in exchange for freedom for me and Sky. I figured I didn't have anything left here anyway so why not. However," I took another gulp of the wine. "Turns out you shouldn't make deals with slave owners cause they'll take all your cash and kill your girl." As I said that the table fell silent again. I awkwardly looked down and took a bite of my food. I could tell that each and every one of the people at the table had lots of questions for me. "Go ahead," I finally said. "Ask away."

"What was it like?" Ajay was the first to ask a question. "Did you know you were frozen?" I shook my head.

"Honestly had no idea. I was a little chilly when I got out but that was it. I mean it felt like I was well rested, but sleeping for seven hundred years does that I suppose." A few people chuckled.

"What was it like? The past?" Bloodhound asked.

"It had its ups and downs. Firstly I would say the food was much better, no offence." I grinned a little. "All of the blood sports were purely fictional, don't know if you guys would see that as good or bad all things considered. But the people were a lot more ignorant."

"They still are," Wraith commented.

"Yeah but, just in different ways. I mean I would've had to go through a lot of trouble if I wanted to marry a girl. They had a lot of problems with stuff like that." I looked over to Bloodhound and tried to imagine how hard it was for non-binary folks in 2019. "But I mean, space travel is fun!"

"It's remarkable how your body survived the journey through space," Caustic said.

"Thanks?"

"Well once humans began traveling through different planets and atmospheres, much like the pigs, we had to adapt, and evolve," he explained.

"Huh." I tilted my head. "Hadn't thought about that."

"If you have no money, how are you paying for a respawn?" Bangalore asked.

"I offered to pay it," Mirage said for me. "I did kinda force her to be on my team. Was the least I could do." She nodded and it fell silent again till Pathfinder practically jumped out of his seat,

"Spider-Man!" he declared. Everyone stared at him and I felt myself grinning wider than ever. "You designed your suit to look like Spider-Man since you can stick to walls!"

"Finally!!" I exclaimed. "No one understood it!" I reached over the table to give him a high-five, which he gladly did while everyone else stared at us like we were insane.

"I have a collection of information surrounding pop culture starting in the year 1924. I think your Spider-Man suit was very clever."

"Did we just become best friends?" I asked him.

"Although," he kept going, seeming to have not heard my comment. "If you were picking a Marvel superhero based on yourself, why would you have gone with Spider-Man over Captain America?"

"Why-?" I began to ask when suddenly it dawned on me. "Shit!" I exclaimed. "That would've been so much better!"

"Anyone else super lost?" Mirage commented.

"Captain America was frozen in ice for seventy years!" I was nearly shouting. "I can't believe I didn't think of that!"

"Are you saying you weren't the first human to be cryogenically frozen?" Caustic asked.

"What? Oh, no, Captain America is a comic book character. Fictional." I explained while shaking my head, "I can't believe I missed that." I took another bite of my food as it fell silent again.

"Are you going to be searching for answers?" Bloodhound asked, breaking the silence. I nodded,

"I think so. I don't know how much luck I'll having finding who froze me and all but I would like to find out what happened to my family once I was gone. Friends to."

"What do you mean by that?" Bangalore asked. I grinned a little,

"I guess I want to make sure that they lived the lives that they deserved." A few of them looked at me, curious. "It's a little weird I know." Across the table Gibraltar shook his head.

"I think it's sweet." I gave him a small grin. "I'll tell ya what bruddah. After we crush you guys tomorrow, I'll pay for your next respawn!" he said with a wink. I couldn't help but laugh.

"We'll see about that!"


	13. Chapter 13

This time when I got to the arena things were a lot different. Since it was a champion game they had rolled out the red carpet. Literally. Mirage had insisted that we show up in a limo. I tried to protest but Wraith had told me it was useless.

We were already in the outfits we were going to be wearing in the arena as we drove in the limo. I had my mask in my hands and was nervously playing with it. Wraith was staring out the window, looking like she was deep in thought while Mirage was fixing his hair in the reflection from his phone.

"How do I look?" he asked once he was done.

"Like an idiot," I replied, smugly. He grinned a little,

"At least I'm not wearing a costume from a kids show from seven hundred years ago."

"It was not a kids show!" I exclaimed. "Well, I mean there were a few T.V shows, but also movies for adults!" Mirage shook his head. "I think you would actually like some of the movies. But something tells me you would like Iron Man more."

"Who is that?"

"A rich narcissist." Mirage pretended to look offended and I glanced over at Wraith to see her hiding a smile. I looked out the window and saw that we were getting close. I felt a knot tie in my stomach and I began to clutch the mask even harder.

"It's going to be fine," Mirage said, seeming to notice my anxiety. "Worst case scenario we all die and laugh about it at dinner tonight." I shook my head,

"That is never a sentence I thought I would hear." The limo pulled itself to a stop right in front of the carpet. Lined across the sides stood reporters all with cameras pointed at our car.

"Ready?" Mirage asked me. I nodded and he opened the door. Mirage went out first and waved to all of the cameras. He made a decoy appear to continue waving while he turned around and offered Wraith a hand getting out of the limo. Once she was out he offered his hand to me. "We got this," he said as I grabbed his hand. He led me out of the limo where I was instantly blinded by the flashing lights. I blinked a few times to adjust to the light. Mirage put one of his arms around my shoulders and the other around Wraith and was grinning ear to ear. This really seemed to be his element. Meanwhile Wraith was looking like she was holding back the urge to run into the building and away from everyone as fast as possible. Mirage led us over to where there was a reporter with a microphone she was waving in our faces.

"Mirage, Wraith and Sly!" she exclaimed as we approached, I felt myself grip my mask harder as I realized I was going to have to talk to this person who no doubt was filming for thousands of people. "A team no one saw coming!" 

"Kinda like how I didn't see her coming the first time!" Mirage responded to the reporter. I faked a grin as she looked over to me.

"How did you end up on the team with the person everyone thought hated you?" she asked while waving the microphone in front of me. I was taken a bit aback by her question but quickly brushed it off.

"Peer pressure," I said with a small laugh. The reporter laughed as well, seeming to have enjoyed my comment.

"Well best of luck to the three of you today!" And with that statement she was off to the next team showing up on the carpet. I followed Mirage into the building and when the door closed behind us I couldn't help but sigh.

"See?" Mirage said to me. "That wasn't so bad!"

"Yeah I feel like I'm going to vomit." Mirage laughed and gave me a pat on the back. I followed him to the hanger that contained the drop ship, it was still going to be a few more minutes till we all loaded on. I looked around at all the teams that had already arrived. I saw a few more familiar faces that I recognized from other matches but I knew not to doubt the ones I didn't know. They had won matches afterall. As we walked through I noticed that many people were looking over at me and my team.Most of the glares were hostile. At least, until I saw a face I recognized.

"Hey Bruddahs!" Gibraltar exclaimed once he saw us. We walked up to him and his team which consisted of him, Lifeline and Caustic. "I'm looking forward to our battle!"

"It's gonna be epic!" Mirage exclaimed. He looked over at me and Wraith. "We have to go grab our respawns, we'll see you in there!" he said as if it was a casual get together.

"How do the respawns even work?" I asked Mirage as he led us over to go get them.

"Honestly, I have no idea. They're going to give you this needle and that somehow lets you be brought back to life."

"Sounds sketchy," I commented.

"It is," Wraith said. "But it works." We walked up to the table and our names were checked off a list. A woman came up to me with a large needle.

"Is there like pill version of this?"

"Afraid of needles?" Mirage teased as his needle was injected into the back of his neck. I closed my eyes and shuddered,

"Just do it." I told the lady.

"Try to relax, it will hurt less," she told me. I took a deep breath and clenched my jaw. Once she was done I rubbed the back of my neck.

"I would sooner die for good than do that again," I mumbled. Mirage laughed.

"Attention," a voice boomed overhead. "The dropship will be leaving in five minutes."

~~~~~~

"Alright!" Mirage exclaimed as the doors to the ship opened. "We ready?" I rapidly shook my head. "Well that sucks," he said with a grin. "We all know where we're landing?" I nodded, we had planned out where we had wanted to go a few days before the match. The first of the teams began to jump out of the ship. "Here we go!" Mirage shouted over top of the ship as he leapt out. Wraith and I followed him on either side. This time when I jumped went a lot better than the first and I was able to keep up with my team.

We had decided to drop in a tiny village between Airbase and Bunker. As we were flying I looked behind me and saw that we were being followed.

"Uh guys?" I said into the coms, which were also being transmitted to the audience. "I think we have a tail!"

"It's fine!" Mirage said. "We got this!" As we neared the ground we each landed in a different building to look for loot. The building I picked was relatively small and the only thing inside was a syringe and a mozambique. My mind was racing as I knew the other team was close so I grabbed the syringe and left.

"Enemy here," Wraith said calmly through the coms. I could hear shooting. As I ran into the next building I came face to face with a man wielding a peacekeeper.

"Shit!" I shouted before turning myself invisible. As I did I slid forward, to avoid the blast from the shotgun, and kicked out the man's legs from under him. He toppled to the ground just as Mirage ran in with a re-45. The announcer declared first blood and Mirage looked over to me.

"Did you not find a gun?!" he yelled to me after the guy was dead.

"Well you see," I said as Wraith made her way back over to us, having dealt with the enemy. "There was a mozambique-."

"And you didn't pick it up?!" he cut me off.

"You told me I wasn't allowed!!" Mirage put a hand on his head and sighed.

"Take the peacekeeper," Wraith said to me through the coms. "I'll get the mozambique."

"Oh so she's allowed?!"

"Yes! Because she's not an idiot!"

"Guys!" Wraith interrupted us as she walked in. "There's still one more." I bit my tongue and looked around, peacekeeper ready. I saw Wraith's eyes go silver. "Sly duck," she warned. I didn't question her and dropped to the floor just as a bullet whizzed into the wall where I had been standing.

"How did you-?" I started but she glared at me. "Right. Voices."

"Stay here," she instructed and she slunk her way out of the building. The person who had fired through the window had sent another shot, this time above Mirage's head.

"See?" Mirage said. "This is fun." I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see it under my mask. I heard the sound of a mozambique go off.

"Clear," Wraith said to us. I stood back up,

"Go team!"

"You did absolutely nothing," Wraith told me as she came back inside, now wielding the sniper rifle the person she took down was carrying. Mirage nodded in agreement. "The last guy had a body shield. Go grab it." I nodded and ran out of the building. I also noticed that the person she had killed had a R-301.

"Anyone mind if I take this?" I asked holding it up to the window.

"Go for it," Mirage said with a smirk. "You need all the help you can get." I shook my head as I reloaded the gun.

"The ring is going to be closing soon," Wraith said while looking at the map. "We're going to have to go through Bunker instead of around."

"Crap," Mirage said as they began walking.

"Why? What's wrong with Bunker?" I asked, jogging to catch up with them.

"It's very confined. One of Caustic's favourite places," Mirage explained. I slowly nodded my head.

"Well maybe his team didn't land there!" I said, trying to be optimistic.

"You sound like Pathfinder," Mirage commented.

"Is that a good thing?" He didn't answer. As we got to the big doors that led to bunker my team stopped.

"Okay," Wraith said. "These doors are loud. If anyone is in here, they're going to hear us coming." 

"Got it," I said while swinging around my R-301. Wraith nodded to Mirage and he hit the button to open the door. I couldn't help but cringe when I heard just how loud the door really was as it echoed through bunker. Wraith was the first to walk through with Mirage behind her, and me in the back.

"There's a team here," Wraith whispered into the coms. "No traps though." I nodded. "They know we're here," she added. I saw Mirage mouth a curse word. He reached into a pocket and pulled out a grenade and held it up. Wraith nodded. "Sly," she said. "Go get behind them." I titled my head,

"How am I supposed to do that?" I don't think I can run around that mountain in time." She raised her eyebrows and Mirage spun his head around to glare at me as well. "Oh! Right," I said as I began to crawl onto the roof. "Forgot."

"How do you-?" Mirage started but the sound of footsteps was getting closer and he shook his head. "Once I throw this you go. Okay?"

"Okay." I positioned myself on the roof behind the corner and once Mirage tossed the grenade I went invisible and began crawling across the roof. As I crawled I saw the team we were facing. It was Bangalore, Bloodhound and Pathfinder. I gulped as I scrambled down towards them. I hoped that Bloodhound wouldn't think to look up. Even though I was invisible I had a feeling that they would be able to find me.

Thankfully, they all were focused on the grenade that was thrown. Bangalore yelled something to her team and they all took cover behind the open doors at the bottom of bunker, guns ready for my team to walk down the stairs. Once I was at the other end, I positioned myself on the wall and aimed my gun. I needed to make sure that I wouldn't miss my first shot.

"Anytime now Sly," Mirage told me through the coms. I took a deep breath and pulled down the trigger. The first half of the magazine went right through Pathfinder, breaking his helmet before lodging a bullet in his head. As he fell to the ground, while still holding the trigger, I brought the gun over to where Bangalore was. I missed her head and got a few bullets in her stomach. I heard her shields break but I was out of ammo in the gun before I could finish her off and instead left her downed.

At this point Bloodhound had spun around to face me. I dropped my empty R-301 and spun around my peacekeeper. I noticed that they had one as well. We fired nearly at the same time. My bullet piercing their shields and their bullet piercing mine. The impact knocked me off of the wall and I crashed to the floor. Bloodhound made a rush towards me and as they did I noticed that their eyes were glowing red.

"Jesus!" I exclaimed as I scrambled to pull the trigger. The bullet whizzed past the hunters head and into the roof. I heard them fire their weapon and felt it as the bullet went through my stomach. I cried out in pain and fired another shot, this time hitting them in the shoulder. Bloodhound didn't slow down and soon their peacekeeper was inches from my face. I heard a gun go off and the next thing I knew Bloodhound's body was on top of me. I groaned as I pushed them off of me. "'Bout time you showed up," I muttered as a grasped my stomach.

"Here," Wraith said as she knelt down in front of me with a medkit.

"Do their eyes always do that thing?" I asked as she applied it to my gunshot wound. Mirage nodded. "Well that's terrifying." Mirage nodded in agreement. I looked back over at Bloodhound and saw that their crow was sitting on the ground beside them, glaring at me. "I think I pissed off the bird," I muttered.

"Yeah, that thing also definitely holds grudges," Mirage told me as Wraith finished patching me up.

"Where's Bangalore?" she asked looking around at the two bodies. I looked around the room,

"I'm no Bloodhound here but I say we follow that trail of blood."


	14. Chapter 14

We found Bangalore sitting outside of bunker, attempting to heal herself with a medkit. She saw us and laughed.

"Not bad for an FNG," she told me as we walked up. Mirage and Wraith both had their weapons aimed at her. I had yet to reload mine.

"Yeah sorry about that," I muttered.

"And I'm sorry about this," she said and with the arm that wasn't holding the medkit I watched as she whipped out a Wingman and fired a round into my stomach, just inches from where I had last been shot.

"Mother-" I started as I tumbled down to the ground. Wraith put a bullet in Bangalore's skull and Mirage came up to me, laughing.

"Dumbass!" he laughed as he began using a couple syringes on me.

"How have neither of you been shot?!" I exclaimed once I stopped bleeding.

"See, we're actually good at this," Mirage boasted. Wraith shook her head,

"Grab some loot. We have to keep moving." I stood up and went back into bunker to look for more ammo.

"Sly, Pathfinder had a blue shield," Mirage told me. "Take it." I nodded and equipped the new shield. I looked over to Bloodhound and saw that they had shotgun ammo. I looked back at the crow who hadn't moved.

"Hey bud," I said in a cooing manner. "Mind if I grab some of this?" I reached towards the ammo when the bird reached over and bit my finger. "You little shit!" I exclaimed as I pulled my hand back. The bird cawed a few times, as if he was laughing at me.

"Yeah I wouldn't try to take anything from Bloodhound," Mirage commented from outside.

"Thanks for the heads up." Mirage chuckled.

"Now hurry it up, rings closing in two." I decided to leave the rest of the ammo and I followed Mirage out of bunker. I looked down at my map and saw that the ring looked like it was going to close near Bridges. "Hope you don't mind jogging."

"Do I have to?" I complained. Mirage laughed and Wraith shook her head.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Attention. There is a new kill leader," the announcer stated. I looked down at the screen on my wrist to see who it was.

"Caustic," I muttered.

"Well that explains the screaming we heard," Mirage commented. I laughed.

"Yeah but now we have to deal with him." We were underneath the pass between Bridges and the area to the left of Repulser. It was just his team and ours left and the ring was getting tight. Wraith put a finger to her lips and Mirage and I closed our mouths and looked around. She nodded towards one of the buildings close to the river. We started creeping towards the building, Wraith's sniper aimed in the window. She took a shot.

"Move up, now, she's dead." she said calmly when something was thrown out the window of the building. I titled my head as I watched the red smoke rise up.

"Run!" Mirage shouted as he took off back towards the underpass by Bridges. Wraith disappeared into the void while I stood still for a second trying to figure out why we needed to run when I saw the first of the missiles falling.

"Oh that's not good," I muttered before taking off sprinting. It turned out that I was a faster sprinter than Mirage and I had made it under cover before him. One of the blasts knocked him forward and onto his face. I still had no idea where Wraith was. I ran up to Mirage and dragged his body behind a rock. He was still breathing, though there was a fair amount of blood. I pulled out a syringe and started applying it to him when I heard footsteps around the rock, they were too heavy to be Wraith's. Once I heard the laugh, I knew it was Gibraltar.

"Congrats on makin' it this far!" he exclaimed once he saw me. I quickly turned myself invisible and scrambled to my feet. "You know I can see your footsteps in the water, right bruddah?" I cursed and made myself visible again, causing him to laugh.

"Wraith?" I whispered into the coms. "Might need some help down here." As if almost on cue I heard the sound of Wraith's rifle firing. It went through some of Gibraltar's amour. He spun around to see where the shot had come from so I took the opportunity and attempted to fire a few shots at him as well. A few went through his shields and in one simple move he took a step towards me and jabbed the butt of his gun into my stomach, knocking me to the ground.

Once I was out of the way and catching my breath he spun around to meet Wraith, who was now down with us. She managed to hit him again, breaking his shields however hers broke as well and one bullet later she was on the ground. I quickly jumped onto the small rock we had been using for cover, since I would stick and put the final bullet into Gibraltar. He hit the ground, for good, and I ran over to Wraith and dragged her behind the rock as well. Luckily she had only been shot in the arm and was able to start patching herself up while I got Mirage back up.

"Good work team!" he exclaimed.

"Again," Wraith said. "You didn't do anything."

"Yeah but it was like, a team effort." Wraith rolled her eyes and we looked back at the last house that was in the ring. "He's in there. Has to be."

"So let's go get him!"

"It's Caustic," Mirage pointed out. "We can't just walk in." I stuck my head out from the rock and looked into the window where I accidentally made eye contact with him before he slunk out of my view.

"Shit," I said. "He saw me." Mirage smacked me. "So what's the plan?" I asked. I looked over to Wraith.

"The house he is in is inside the ring. We're not." I nodded. "If we could just draw him out."

"I have a feeling he's pretty comfy where he's at," Mirage said.

"Wait," I interrupted. "He probably thinks it's just me left alive, right?" 

"More likely than not." I felt myself grin.

"I have an idea." I began to formulate the plan in my head. "It's really dumb though." Neither of them said anything so I decided to go on. "If he thinks it's just me left alive I have no doubt that he'll take his time trying to kill me with that gas, right?" Mirage nodded. "So, he also probably thinks I'm an idiot-"

"Which you are."

"That's why this works. So I'll go through the door, pretending to be oblivious, and set off the traps."

"And how does that help?" Wraith cut in.

"Because, while he focuses on you know, watching me die and making a dramatic villain monologue, you can do your whole void thing, get in, and shoot him!" Wraith shook her head.

"I can't void jump while wielding a weapon. There would be no time for me to get one out before the gas affects me to." I thought for a second.

"So take his mask off!" I began nodding excitedly. "Yeah! All you would have to do is pull the mask up and off of his face! Then you could grab me and dip!"

"Give him a taste of his own medicine!" Mirage said, seeming excited as well. Wraith shook her head.

"That's to risky," she looked down at her map and while she wasn't looking I left cover, invisible. "We can figure out-" she cut herself off. "Sly."

"Yeah?"

"Come back."

"But I'm already almost there!"

"Yeah I'm with Wraith here kid," Mirage said.

"Okay! I'm going in!" I said as I neared the door.

"What?!"

"I'm going to crawl in invisible on the roof. Make it seem more dramatic."

"Sly!" Mirage said louder. I turned around and saw that Wraith was moving up as well. I took that as my cue. I crawled up onto the walls and neared the door of the building. The door was a crack open and since I wanted to be dramatic I slowly pushed it open and crawled through while invisible. As I slunk in I couldn't help but get a little nervous but I quickly shook it away. I looked down on the floor and saw that right behind the door sat one of Caustic's barrels. For the plan to work I needed to set it off so I used my foot and kicked the door the rest of the way open. The barrel hissed as it began releasing the chemicals into the air. The first whiff of it was enough to knock me off of the roof. As I crashed to the ground I heard laughing, but unlike Gibraltar's, this laugh was much more sinister. I began coughing as I felt the gas burning through my lungs.

"With blood as old as yours," he started as he slowly walked up to me. "I was hoping you would be different." I tried to speak but I was unable to due to the amount of blood in my mouth. I found myself trying to crawl further away but he grabbed me by the collar of my suit and threw me forward, not before ripping off my mask. "Turns out you're just like the rest. Such a shame." He said while inches away from my face, observing. Since he was so close I used what energy that wasn't be spent to spit a gob of blood into his sneering face. This only caused him to laugh however he did take a step back from me. He was about to wipe his mask clean when Wraith finally appeared behind him.

"Here," she said as she reached for the mask. "Let me help with that." And in one swift movement Wraith ripped the mask off of Caustic's face, ran over to me, grabbed my suit, and launched us into the void. Had I have not been coughing up more blood, I would've been more freaked out over the fact that I was phasing between dimensions. Once we were out Wraith practically dropped me into the grass and ran back over to towards Mirage. I wasn't sure what happened next as I was fighting for consciousness as well as fresh air but a few seconds later I heard the announcers glorious voice.

"Attention. Winner decided." I was still coughing up blood when I saw Mirage standing over me, grinning ear to ear. I remembered giving him a thumbs up before everything finally went black.


	15. Chapter 15

I woke up in a room that resembled a hospital. I groaned and rolled over in the bed I was in, my lungs still sore.

"There she is!" Mirage exclaimed, having watching me stir. "That gas really did a number on you!" I carefully sat up,

"Did I-?"

"Die?" Mirage finished for me. "Nope! They got to you in time after I killed Casutic."

"Awe, I was kinda hoping I would've died." Mirage tilted his head. "I'm curious!"

"Little weird, but okay." I grinned a little.

"So my plan worked?" Mirage was holding back a smile.

"It did." I did a fist pump. "Once Wraith took off his mask he came stumbling out of the door only to meet my peacekeeper." I grinned.

"Where is she by the way?" I asked looking around the room I was in.

"She tends to disappear afterwards. Think she just needs some space, she'll be back by the time we leave." I nodded.

"I can't believe we actually won." I said. "So now what?" Mirage grinned.

"I didn't mention this before but we usually have another party after the game." I groaned. "No! It's fun! A lot more casual than the dinner party. We really just watch the game together." I nodded before I started coughing, my lungs still hurting. Mirage noticed.

"I'll go see if Caustic is awake yet. He usually has some sort of remedy for that afterwards." I nodded and Mirage left the room, leaving me alone. I put my head against the backboard of the bed I was in, I couldn't believe that we had actually pulled it off. My mind started to drift off to ideas of what I was going to do next when there was a knock on the door. I lifted my head up.

"Caustic!" I said while coughing. He was lurking in the doorway, when I looked at him I couldn't help but notice he wasn't wearing a shirt. I awkwardly looked away. "You're-" I started.

"Alive?"

"I was going to say shirtless," I said jokingly, I looked back and couldn't help but notice he was much more buff than I would've imagined.

"Ah yes, well they did just revive me." I nodded while awkwardly looking away again,

"Right," I said drawing out the word, trying not to make this conversation any more awkward than it already was. "Mirage send you?"

"I have not seen him since he shot me." I opened my mouth to say something but I wasn't sure how to talk to this man. "This is for you," he took a step into the room and handed me what resembled an inhaler. "It will help your lungs." I looked at it.

"It's not more poison gas?"

"Well since the respawn is still in your system I have to admit I did think about finishing the job." My eyes went wide. "That was a joke," he said without changing his serious tone of voice.

"Right," I said again as I hesitantly took the vial. "Thanks-" I started but when I looked back up Caustic was already gone. I shook my head and looked down at the medicine. "Well the respawn is still in my system," I mumbled to myself as I inhaled the medication. Instantly I felt the pain lift from my chest. I took a deep breath and soon I felt little pain at all.

"I can't find him!" Mirage exclaimed as he walked back into the room. I held up the inhaler he had given me.

"I did." Mirage shook his head. "Also, he is surprisingly ripped." I added, commenting on the fact that he had not been wearing a shirt.

"I know, right!" I looked at him and squinted my eyes.

"How do you know that?" Mirage's face flushed red.

"Oh! When we leave we are going to be interviewed!"

"Smooth topic change." Mirage ignored me.

"After a champion game since everyone got respawned they make us leave in order based on what they placed."

"So we go last?" Mirage nodded.

"It is fun to watch though!" he said while grabbing the remote to the T.V that was in the room I was in. Since I was feeling better I looked down at my suit, which still had two bullet holes in it and lots of blood. "Yeah you might want to change before we leave." Mirage commented, without looking over.

"I didn't bring anything else."

"Good thing I did," he said while reaching under the chair and pulling out a bag. I opened it up and looked at the clothes. There were two different outfits in side. "Wear the red shirt. The other outfit was for if we lost."

"You planned out a winning and a losing outfit?"

"Of course!" I rolled my eyes and went to the washroom to get changed. When I came back I saw that it was Bloodhound's team leaving the building. The only one who seemed like they actually wanted to answer the questions was Pathfinder.

"I think we all underestimated how good Sly was!" he exclaimed. In the corner I saw Bangalore glare at him, causing me to laugh.

"And I hear that you all had met Sly the night before today's match?" the reporter asked. I looked at Mirage,

"How do they know that?"

"I posted it," he said simply. I glared at him. "What?! I have over a million followers on my page! They love that kind of stuff!" I shook my head and looked back to the T.V.

"We did," Pathfinder said. "For someone of her age, she is very funny." My eyes went wide.

"He's not going to-?" I started while looking at Mirage. He looked just as worried as me.

"And what do you mean by that?" the reporter pressed. I felt my stomach do a backflip. "In the arena Caustic said something about Sly having old blood."

"Yes, well, Sly is seven hundred and twenty three years old!" Pathfinder exclaimed. I put my head in my hands.

"He's kidding," Bangalore said suddenly, stepping in front of him. The reporter looked as if he had more questions to ask but Bangalore kept pushing Pathfinder past them, with Bloodhound and their crow following behind.

"Yeah that made it worse," Mirage commented as the reporters began to follow them, asking more age related questions. I sighed. "Hey, it'll be fine," Mirage said, noticing my distress. I nodded a few times, trying to collect my thoughts.

"But," I started. "I mean I feel like it was an accident me getting unfrozen. What if whoever was keeping me like that comes back?"

"We'll keep you safe," a different voice said. I looked to the door and saw Wraith. I gave her a small smile. "I know our situations are different, but no one has come after me yet. I think it will be the same for you." I nodded.

"Thanks."

"And if not," Mirage started. "We can kick their asses like we just did to everyone in the arena!" I couldn't help but laugh a little. "Now come, we'll be going out soon."

~~~~~~~

There was a line of people waiting by the doors of the building. There were still a few teams in front of us that had to go through. When we got to the line Gibraltar saw us and grinned.

"The champions of the arena!" he exclaimed. He gave me a pat on the shoulder. "Some match!"

"I can't wait ta see the footage," Lifeline commented, grinning as well. I was about to reply when they were ushered out the door. While we waited I ran a hand through my hair, getting nervous about the questions I was about to be asked.

"Should I just tell them?" I wondered out loud.

"What do you mean?" Mirage asked.

"I mean, at this point they already have questions about who I am. If I'm blunt about it instead of secretive, would it be better?" He shrugged,

"Only one way to find out." I took a deep breath as the doors opened in front of us. Like when we arrived we were greeted with flashes from what felt like thousands of cameras. I felt Mirage put one of his arms around my shoulder again so that he could guide me through. This time Wraith was keeping more to herself. We walked down till we were greeted by the same reporter that interviewed Pathfinder.

"Congrats!" he exclaimed to us. "What's it like winning a champion match that also happened to be your second match ever?" he asked, waving the microphone in my face. I forced a grin,

"It's pretty crazy."

"Now question for you Sly." I gulped. "Pathfinder said something pretty weird about your age. He said you are seven hundred and twenty three. What did he mean by that?" I looked over at Mirage again and bit my lip. I shook my head.

"Well I am." The reporter tilted his head. "Seven hundred and twenty three." I saw the reporter struggling to find words. Beside me Mirage was holding back a smile.

"How?" the reporter finally asked.

"I was actually cryogenically frozen for about seven hundred years." After I had said that it was clear that the time we had for the interview was over and the three of us kept walking. Once we were back in the limo I bursted out laughing.

"Did you see his face?!"


	16. Chapter 16

The rest of the legends had beat us back to Mirage's house. They had already busted out the booze and were all lounging around the kitchen.

"She purposely went into your gas?" I heard Bangalore asking Caustic.

"From my understanding, yes." When we walked in all heads turned to us. I awkwardly waved and went to grab myself a drink,

"It was a good plan. The gas," I said as I picked up a can. However as I opened up the can, the drink fizzed over and spilt all over the front of my shirt. A few people chuckled.

"And you're telling me we lost to that?" Ajay asked with a wink. Mirage came up and pat me on the back.

"You should go change. I'll start up the T.V." I nodded and ran off to my room to find a different shirt. When I walked in my eyes drifted towards the old suit that Sky had made for me, it was laying on top of the dresser. I grinned a little has I put my hand on it. If only she could see me now.

When I walked back out everyone was now in the living room sitting down. I began to make my way over to them when I was cut off by Pathfinder.

"Miss Sly," he started. "I have been told that I should not have told the reporter your age and I would like to apologize." I laughed a little.

"It's okay. They were bound to find out anyway." Pathfinder's screen displayed a smiling face.

"Still, I would like to make it up to you."

"How so?"

"I believe I may be able to help you in locating information about what happened to your family." I felt myself grin,

"Really?"

"Getting access to the internet archives from seven hundred years ago is a bit of a tricky task however I believe with my computer skills and enough bribe money, we could have some luck."

"Wow. That would be awesome Path." He brought his hand up and I high-fived it. "But why help me?"

"I enjoy helping humans. I also have not considered the possibility of my creator being from your time and I believe it would be worth investigating." I smiled a little, the thought was cute. "However I do believe that we may need some more money."

"Yeah? And how do you suppose we go about doing that?"

"There is a duos match in five days time."

"Are you asking me to be your teammate?" I asked with a grin.

"Unless you would rather do more solo or squad matches." I shook my head.

"I would love to be on your team Pathfinder." The screen on his chest changed to display a face with heart eyes. I gave him a pat on the shoulder. "It'll be fun! Now come, we have a match to watch."

We entered the living room and I saw that all of the seats were full. I elected to sitting on the floor, leaning up against the coffee table.

"Alright!" Mirage exclaimed. "Ready to watch us kick your asses?!" Gibraltar threw a chip at him. I laughed as I watched Bloodhound's crow swoop down to pick it up, scaring Mirage. The bird rested near my feet and I quickly brought my legs up to my chest. Bloodhound called him back.

"I heard he bit you in the arena," they said casually.

"Yeah..." I mumbled, a little embarrassed. I held up my finger. "I still have the mark!" This made a few people laugh,

"Now that's something I can't wait to watch," Ajay, who was leaning up against Bangalore, giggled. Mirage had finished setting up the T.V and took a seat in the middle of the couch, squishing in between Gibraltar and Ajay.

"Alright!" he started as he hit play. "So since none of us care about the other teams we just watch the footage of ourselves," he explained to me. I nodded,

"How narcissistic of you." A few people laughed. "And, since we took first blood, I believe that means we start with us." The screen began playing the start of the match and I grabbed a handful of chips. Watching myself made me in the arena realize that I really wasn't good at the whole thing.

"Hold on!" Ajay laughed. "Why weren't you allowed to take a mozambique?" She asked after the first fight had ended.

"Well when we first started training Mirage was teaching me how to use all the guns and stuff right? Well he made different piles and one of them was ones I wasn't allowed to take!" A few people laughed.

"That didn't mean you should go without a gun!" I shook my head,

"I believe your words were 'you're not allowed to pick them up, ever.'" I said mimicking his voice. Mirage shook his head and went back to the T.V. We then switched over to Bangalore's team and watched as they took down a squad on the other side of bunker before going inside to heal.

"Okay we have to watch this from our point of view," Mirage said switching to the cameras focused on my team.

"Do we have to?" I complained, remembering what had happened.

"How do you forget that you can go invisible and climb walls?" Bangalore asked as we watched. I shrugged,

"I mean, it's not something I did that often in 2019, it takes some getting used to!" She shook her head with a small smile on her face as she took a swig from her beer. We continued watching up and once we got to the point where Bangalore shot me, everyone burst out laughing. I found myself laughing with them. "You know looking back I can see my mistake," I said before any of them had the chance to comment on my stupidity. Once we had left bunker Mirage changed the footage to Caustics team where he had taken out an entire team with his gas. They had been healing up in the house where our fight had taken place when we arrived. Everyone applauded Wraith's headshot she took from the window, even Ajay, who was the one that was killed from it. Mirage switched back to our team and I watched everyone's faces as they watched me explain my plan. Everyone was grinning, except Caustic. I found myself biting my lip, he really wasn't the person I would want to have on my bad side.

"Dramatic villain monologue?" he finally asked as the screen had me running towards the building, although, since I was invisible all that could be seen were my footsteps in the water.

"Yeah you know, in like every movie the bad guy always gives this dramatic speech about why they are doing what they're doing. Take Darth Vader for example, he literally wasted an entire scene talking to his son about how being evil was great when like, everyone else was busy fighting." Everyone looked at me confused. "Star Wars?" Mirage shook his head and I sighed as Mirage pressed play on the footage. The video ended on my thumbs up at the end.

"I can't believe that plan actually worked." Gibraltar chuckled. "She really had you figured out!" he exclaimed while reaching over to give Caustic a pat on the back. Caustic huffed,

"I have to admit, I would never have expected someone to willingly submit themselves to the gas to provide a distraction." I felt myself grinning. "Although I would expect you will not be doing that again." I shrugged,

"Honestly. I can't confirm or deny that statement." A few people laughed and I thought I saw Caustic grin a little.

"Well, I will make sure that next time, the gas will act faster."

"I would expect nothing less Caustic," I said with a grin, although the thought was terrifying to me. "Did you like how I dramatically fell off the roof though?!" A few people started laughing and a new conversation had started about other moments in the match when all of a sudden Wraith jumped up out of her seat, looking straight ahead.

"Everything okay?" Mirage asked. Wraith didn't reply and I saw her tilt her head before her eyes turned silver.

"Everyone down!" she exclaimed with clear worry in her voice. A few people listened and hit the floor just seconds before bullets started raining through the windows of Mirages house. I quickly turned myself invisible as Gibraltar threw down one of his dome shields and I crawled back around the couch to take cover behind it, the bullets still pouring through. I looked over to Mirage who was shaking his head.

"I just had the walls repainted!"


	17. Chapter 17

"What the hell is happening?!" I exclaimed while looking around. I noticed that most of the legends already had guns out and ready. I glanced to Mirage who was loading his.

"Oh you know, sometimes someone gets mad about what happens in the arena and tries to take it out on us in real life."

"You mean this has happened before?!"

"All the time." My eyes went wide. I realized that I wasn't wearing my suit and cursed when I also realized that meant I wasn't carrying a gun on me. I peaked around the couch and saw Bangalore barking orders to some of the other legends.

"There's at least six of them," Wraith informed her before she disappeared into her void, knife ready. Bangalore kept instructing people where to go, although not all of them were listening and were already doing their own thing. Mirage looked down at me,

"Stay under the dome." I quickly nodded, still a little scared. This wasn't in the arena anymore, if someone got shot here... 

As I sat under the cover I couldn't help but look around at the scene in front of me. Whoever was attacking us seemed to know what they were doing however they had decided to go up against eight of the best killers on the planet and were dropping like flies.

"Shouldn't we keep one of them alive!?" I asked to no one in particular. "See who sent them?!"

"That's a good point," Mirage agreed. "Keep one alive!" he yelled to everyone else. He looked over at Caustic who was setting up one of his gas grenades. "Caustic!" he shouted. "No poison gas in the house!" Caustic sighed and put it back in his pocket, looking disappointed. I glanced over to the window and saw two glowing red eyes moving quickly. Bloodhound.

By the time everyone one of the attackers was down only a minute had passed in total. I stood up from the couch as Gibraltar's shield disappeared. As everyone came back together I saw that Gibraltar had taken a bullet and Lifeline was already patching him up with D.O.C. Wraith appeared in front of us.

"There's still one more," she said calmly. "Hiding." she said before disappearing again. I ran a hand through my hair looking around. That's when I saw the shine from a rifle through the reflection of the T.V, whoever it was had a perfect shot lined up on me. I quickly turned myself invisible and slid across the floor a second before the bullet whizzed into the screen. Everyone around me reacted but I had already made it behind the last guy. I quickly grabbed a lamp from beside where he was standing and broke it over his head. He fell to the ground, unconscious and I made myself visible.

"You can do that without the suit?" Bangalore asked. Mirage glared at me,

"So much for keeping that a secret," he said with his eyebrows raised. I shrugged and he shook his head. "Well, it looks like he's the only one still alive," he said while looking back at everyone else. "Path, tie him up." The bot didn't protest and hoisted the unconscious man up before dropping his onto a chair. He quickly took his grapple and wrapped it around him, keeping him in place. Everyone stood around him and I decided it would be best if I kept my distance, so I took a few steps behind everyone, basically hiding behind Gibraltar.

"Hey, I know this guy!" Lifeline said as we all stood around him, waiting for him to wake up. We all looked at her. "He's a mercenary, the kind to take a contract without asking questions. Patched him up at one point."

"So much for paying back the favour," Bangalore muttered. "Wake him up," she said to no one in particular. Caustic stepped forward with the gas canister back in his hands.

"No!" Mirage said, reaching over to smack him. "Bad Caustic!" Caustic sighed again, looking disappointed, and put the canister away. Lifeline picked up her drink from the table and hurled the contents towards the mans face.

"Waste of a drink," Caustic muttered, still seeming upset he didn't get to use his gas. The person in the chair began to stir. He looked up and saw the nine of us and his face went sheer white. I saw him mouth a curse word.

"Hello there!" Mirage exclaimed in a tone that seemed to carefree for the given scenario. "Now, my dear friends have been kind enough not to kill you yet so hopefully you can return the favor and tell us who you're after." The man in the chair shook his head.

"You weren't all supposed to be here," he muttered.

"So it was me than?" Mirage asked, grinning as if this was a compliment. The man shook his head and looked around.

"The girl." All heads turned towards me. I pointed to myself as my mouth fell open. The man nodded.

"What?!" Mirage exclaimed and I exclaimed at the same time. "Her?!"

"Me?!" I found myself stepping out from behind Gibraltar. "Who hired you?" The man remained silent. "What do you need a second to think about it?" I found myself getting angry.

"He'll kill me."

"Yeah well look around buddy! So will everyone else in this room!" I saw him clench his jaw. "Or do you need a quick refresher on who you're dealing with?" I looked around. "Wraith can literally send you into a different dimension. I was only in there for about two seconds but I cannot even begin to imagine what it would be like to get stuck in there!" Wraith nodded a few times and I looked over to Pathfinder. "Someone forgot to teach him the three laws of robotics and he won't hesitate to go Terminator on your ass." Everyone looked at me confused but I kept going. "And we've already had to stop Caustic not once, but twice from using that gas on you! Not to mention-!"

"Alright!" he exclaimed, cutting me off. "It was a man by the name of Woodall." I felt myself form fists with my hand.

"What?!" I shouted as I spun around from the guy before I punched him square in the jaw. "That son of a bitch!" All of the legends were looking at me, confused. I found myself wanting to finish off the guy in the chair. I shook my head as I turned back to him, pointing my finger in his face. "Okay," I took a deep breath. "Here's what you're going to do. You're going to go find him on that shitty ass planet and tell him that we're done. Tell him he already got what he wanted, plus more!" I was shouting again.

"Is?" Mirage started. "Is this the guy who...?" I nodded and looked back to the mercenary.

"Tell him that if I ever hear his name again I won't hesitate to fly back down there and put a bullet through his eyes."

"And she won't be going alone," Mirage spoke up.

"You saw what we did here today," Wraith said, stepping up beside Mirage. "Think of what we could do to his little business."

"And they got lots of backup," Gibraltar said stepping forward as well. The rest of the legends all looked at me and nodded, even Caustic. If it hadn't of been so serious I probably would've started laughing at how cheesy this whole scene was. I went up to the man and untied the grapple that was around him.

"Go," I instructed. He sat there hesitating. I raised my eyebrows. "Would you rather I let Caustic have you?" Immediately he jumped out of the seat and ran out the door. Once he was gone I sighed and ran my hand through my hair again. As I did this I noticed that everyone was staring at me. "What?"

"That was pretty badass," Ajay said with a grin. I smiled a little,

"Thanks for having my back guys."

"Of course," Bangalore replied. "You're one of us now. We watch out for each other." My smile grew wider as I nodded. It fell silent in the room again and I started looking around at the mess we had created. A few of the legends were still looking out the window, watching the only surviving attacker flee the scene.

"Sorry about the house Mirage," I finally said. He waved his hand out,

"Happens more often than you would think. You did break my favourite lamp though," he said while smiling.

"Shame we let one get away," Caustic said. "On an unrelated note, I am going to take my leave." Before anyone could answer Caustic was already out the door.

"Yeah he's going to kill that guy, isn't he?" I asked. Mirage grinned.

"Hundred percent."


	18. Chapter 18

The next morning I found myself sitting crossed legged on the couch, due to the amounts of broken glass everywhere, eating a bowl of cereal, wishing the T.V hadn't been shot in last night's battle. I glanced to the ground and saw that there was still lots of blood in the living room alone. I didn't even want to think about what the outside of the house looked like. I took another bite of my cereal.

"Could you chew any louder?!" Mirage exclaimed as he stumbled into the room. It was clear that he had just woken up, despite it being almost eleven in the morning, as he was half dressed and his hair was all over the place. I could also tell that he was a little hungover. I simply shrugged and took another bite of my food. Mirage grabbed a cup of coffee and plopped down on the couch beside me. "What we watching?" he asked, looking at the T.V.

"Bullet versus T.V," I said with my mouth still full. "You'll never believe who won."

"Ha." Mirage pulled out his phone and began to scroll through it while I looked over his shoulder. He saw me looking, "No one believes you're seven hundred." I couldn't help but laugh.

"Figures."

"They think you're making it up as your act."

"My act?" I asked, genuinely interested.

"Yeah, they think you have a whole persona going on." I shook my head.

"The one time I actually tell the truth."

"Yup. Now they all want to know who you really are." I laughed again. "You know what you need to do?"

"Enlighten me."

"You need your own Chitter page! I mean you already have quite the reput-rep, uh, popularity! I bet your fan base would believe you if you posted regularly."

"Chitter?" I asked. "Don't you mean Twitter?" Mirage scrunched his eyebrows together. "Doesn't matter. I don't really think I have as many fans as you think I do." Mirage rolled his eyes and flicked his screen to the photo he had posted of us the day before the dinner party and scrolled down to the comment section. I slid the holographic screen over to myself and began to go through while drinking the milk at the bottom of my cereal bowl. Most of the reactions were nice and I couldn't believe how many there were. "There's more on the picture I posted of the dinner party and then even more on video I rechitted of the game clip where you described your plan with Caustic."

"I'm sorry, did you just say rechitted?"

"We should set you one up today!" he exclaimed, ignoring my question. "Yeah that's a good idea! We could even make a video of us doing it for my page! They would love that!"

"So we're vloggers now?" I said sarcastically.

"I'll do my hair then we'll get started." I groaned as Mirage jumped up off the couch. "This is going to be fun!"

~~~~~~

An hour later Mirage was finally ready.

"Alright!" he declared as he set down his video camera.

"Is it really necessary to video-"

"Hey everyone welcome back to The Oasis!" Mirage exclaimed. "I'm here with my new friend Sly and today-" he stopped himself when he saw how hard I was laughing.

"I"m sorry, I'm sorry, wait!" I kept laughing. "The Oasis?!"

"Yeah cause I'm Mirage, and you know..." he trailed off. I laughed again.

"And people actually watch this?!"

"Excuse me! For the record, we are already at a thousand viewers!" Instantly I stopped laughing.

"You're live streaming?!"

"If that's the same thing as live chitting, then yes." I smacked his arm.

"For God's sake Mirage!" I put my hands in my head, embarrassed. Mirage grinned and looked back at the camera.

"This way she can't leave halfway through," he told the audience.

"Oh I sure as Hell can," I stood up to leave but Mirage grabbed the sleeve of my sweater and pulled me back into the chair. I crossed my arms in front of my chest, causing him to laugh. "Fine," I huffed. "Teach me how to use," I picked up Mirage's phone and looked at it, struggling to find a name. "The iPhone 700." He raised his eyebrows.

"You still don't know what this is called?!" I shrugged. "And what's an iPhone?!" I pulled out my dead phone from my pocket and held it up, shining it at the camera. I figured it would either be a good way to get people to believe who I was or to further the confusion. I was happy with both options.

"The iPhone 8," I declared. "It's dead though, which is a shame, but I don't think they make the right chargers anymore, especially considering the fact that they don't even make these phones anymore, which is a bigger shame."

"It's cracked!" Mirage exclaimed looking at it. I looked to the screen,

"Oh no it's been like that since I dropped it on the pavement a while back."

"And by a while back...?"

"2018. Not sure if it was Thanksgiving or Christmas though." Mirage shook his head while looking back at the camera.

"Anyway! I've already started setting up your account because I didn't want anyone to try and take your chitname."

"I will nod like I know what that means." He turned on his phone and the holographic screen appeared in front of me.

"You just need to open the app."

"Right." I held up my hand and hovered it before the screen. "I can do that." I gazed at the floating screen for a second, the set up wasn't that different from what my iPhone was like except none of the apps had the names written under them, making it hard to distinguish what was what. I saw one that had a picture that resembled a bird and decided that had to be it. I clicked on it. As the app opened I realized that it was a dating app.

"No!" Mirage exclaimed as his dating profile popped up onto the screen. "Close it!"

"I don't know how to do that!" I began frantically clicking on different parts of the screen hoping one of them was the right one but it appeared I was making the problem worse. Mirage finally took the phone back and shut it off. I started laughing while he ran a hand through his hair, his face bright red. "This is why we should not be live streaming."

~~~~~~~

"I'm already at a hundred thousand followers," I told Mirage an hour after we had finished the live stream. "At this rate, I'll pass you by the end of the week!"

"In your dreams." I laughed and began scrolling through my feed. I had a lot of people asking me questions and I was having fun replying to some of them, knowing that I was furthering the confusion of where I was from. It seemed that at this point I had more people believing me as I was mentioning things from 2019 that no one understood, which some saw as convincing. I was drinking a cup of coffee across the table from Mirage, who was also doing a Q&A on his page. "Ha!" he exclaimed. "Apparently people think we are dating!" I spat out my drink.

"They what now?!"

"Yeah well, they also think I'm dating Wraith and Gibraltar."

"Are you?!"

"Please, they wish they were dating me." I snorted, which caused Mirage to glare at me.

"What? It's funny!" Mirage opened his mouth to say something when there was a knock on the door. Confused, he stood up to go answer it.

"Pathfinder?"

"Good afternoon Mr. Witt! Is Sly home?" the bot asked.

"Yeah she's just over there." Pathfinders screen displayed a smiley face as he walked over to me.

"Hey Path! What brings you by?" I asked as he came to sit down beside me.

"I came to inform you that I have registered us for the match in four days. Also, since we have not played together before I believe we need to work on our teamwork!"

"Wait," Mirage interrupted. "You guys are going to be a team?" I nodded and he squinted his eyes, "Willingly?"

"Path thinks he can help me find out what happened to my family." Mirage slowly nodded.

"Well have fun," he looked to Pathfinder, "With all of that." I laughed a little and looked over to Pathfinder

"What did you have in mind?"


	19. Chapter 19

The day of the duos match I found myself getting nervous again. I didn't have nearly as long to train with Pathfinder and I had yet to master using zip-lines like he could. As we loaded into the ship I noticed that this time around I was the champion, and mine and Pathfinder's face were being displayed above everyone. I gulped as I put the mask on, trying not to make eye contact with anyone. Since it wasn't a champion match only about half of the participants had invested in respawns and I found myself feeling guilty simply for having one. As we loaded I also noticed that Bangalore and Gibraltar were playing as well. They waved to us before they jumped.

"Are we ready to go Miss Sly?" Pathfinder asked me as we neared the edge of the ship. I nodded. We lept. "Hold your breath," Pathfinder exclaimed. "If you have to breathe!"

"Of course I have to breathe!" I shouted as we fell which only caused me to lose my breath and I felt myself get lightheaded for a few seconds. We drifted over towards Runoff, noticing that no one was following us. Once we hit the ground Pathfinder and I took off in different directions to look for weapons. "What kind of guns ya like?" I asked Pathfinder through the coms.

"I am programmed to be proficient in every weapon featured in this arena. However, I do prefer the Havoc or Devotion."

"Got it. I'll pick up any energy ammo I see as well then." Since no one else had dropped in our location we took the first five minutes of the match to loot.

"After analyzing your previous two matches I noticed that you have the best accuracy with the R-301. Here is one," he said while handing it to me.

"Thanks!" We took a few seconds to exchange the different loot we had collected. I looked down at my map and saw that we had a bit of a hike in order to get into the ring, which was going to be closing soon. "Ready to go?" I asked. Pathfinder nodded.

"I deploy a zip line so we do not have to walk across the sand!" 

"Yeah I don't like sand," I started, "It's coarse, rough, and irritating, and it gets everywhere," I said dramatically. Pathfinder looked at me,

"Was that a Star Wars reference?" he asked. I grinned,

"I'm glad you get me Pathfinder." I said.

"Well you had mentioned Star Wars previously so I took time to gain information for all nineteen films!" he exclaimed. My eyes went wide.

"Nineteen?! " I exclaimed. "When I left there were like eight!" I shook my head as Pathfinder and I got on the zip line. As we did I couldn't help but appreciate how convenient it was. "This is so much easier than walking!" I remarked as as we zipped across.

"And fun!" Pathfinder replied. I laughed as we jumped off at the other end. We were on the left side of bunker, headed towards the circle by Cascades when I out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. I reached out and stopped Pathfinder from moving. I pointed towards the edge of bunker where a team was walking towards us. Pathfinder changed his screen to display a red angry face. There was a bit of a rock edge that he pointed to and quickly grappled himself up. I grinned as I realized I could climb up to where he was thanks to the stickiness. They were coming around the corner and Pathfinder looked at me. "I will take the one on the right," he said quietly. I nodded.

"After you." Pathfinder lined up a shot with the G7 scout he had found while I got my R-301 ready. As soon as I heard him fire his gun I fired mine. His target went down instantly, headshot, and I had put a whole mag into my target, breaking his blue shields. He was down a few seconds later. Pathfinder held up his hand,

"High-five?" I grinned and gave him a high five. Pathfinder jumped off of the rock and I carefully climbed down so I wouldn't hurt myself. We went down to the bodies to see what they had. As we did I couldn't help but notice that there were no blinking green lights on the two men. I felt myself freeze as Pathfinder looted. They didn't have respawns. "Miss Sly?" Pathfinder finally asked. I snapped back to attention. "I said you can take the level two body shield." I quickly nodded,

"Right, yeah. Thanks."

"Is everything okay?" Pathfinder asked, noticing my hesitation. I nodded again,

"Yeah, yeah, just..." I sighed. "The last game I didn't actually kill anyone."

"That is not correct. You killed me!"

"That's not what I mean." I said looking over at the two bodies. Pathfinder put a hand on my shoulder.

"They knew what they signed up for." I nodded again. "Now, we should keep moving!" And with that statement Pathfinder took off. I shook my head as I followed behind him. As we approached Cascades we could hear the sound of gunfire echoing throughout the river. "My sensors tell me they are on the hill just outside of Bunker!" Pathfinder informed me. I nodded.

"What do you want to do?"

"Statically, we have a lower chance of survival if they keep the high ground. You saw what happened to Anakin when he did not have it." I laughed,

"You really like Star Wars don't you?" I said while still laughing.

"The next ring will most likely be going towards Artillery. I say we get to the high ground above the river and wait for them to come to us," Pathfinder continued. I nodded as the sound of gunfire from above us had stopped,

"Let's do it then."

"There is already a zip line attached over here." I followed Pathfinder to the zip line and got on after him. As we went I looked behind me and saw the shadow of another player.

"Uh Pathfinder? They're down there."

"That's okay. The chances of someone making a shot as we are moving is-" he was cut off as we heard the sound of a gun fire. I felt the bullet go through my arm, causing me to let go of the zip line. I remembered screaming the entire way down to the ground. When I hit the ground heard a loud cracking sound and felt immense pain rippling throughout my leg. I looked down and saw bone sticking through my knee.

"Oh God," I muttered while squeezing my eyes shut, feeling a little sick to my stomach. I felt tears forming at the edges of my eyes and I was getting light headed, both from the pain and the blood loss.

"Don't worry, I got you friend!" Pathfinder exclaimed. He swooped down in front of me, the fall not impacting him at all. I guess he was a robot after all. He came up to me and scooped me into his arms causing me cry out in pain as I was being moved, my leg nor arm enjoying any of it. Pathfinder used his grapple to get us closer to below where we had been trying to get up to. There he grabbed onto the zip line leading straight up. Once we got to the top he carried me inside the building and set me down carefully behind a counter. I looked back down at my leg and winced again when I saw it. I bit my tongue to try and distract myself from the pain in my leg, I had never felt anything so painful. Pathfinder knelt down in front of me with a med kit. "This will help," he said as he began to patch me up. "Humans and falling do not go well together," he commented. I felt the pain in my leg beginning to fade, though I didn't dare look back down at the bone. I looked up to answer Pathfinder but instead I simply watched as a bullet went straight through his head.

"Shit," I mumbled as his body crumpled to the ground. It appeared that whoever had shot me off of the zip line had followed us. I realized I had dropped both my guns when I had fallen off the zip line and frantically looked around for a weapon. I was in to much pain to be able to turn myself invisible, although even if I could, the pile of blood I was sitting in was a bit of a give away. I was in the middle of reaching for Pathfinder's gun when I saw a Wingman pointed at me. I looked at the person holding it. "Oh," I said, wincing through the pain. "Hey guys." Bangalore shook her head and looked back to Gibraltar who was guarding the door before looking back at me.

"Sly moves," she commented. "That fall."

"Ha," I deadpanned, still moaning in pain. I shifted in place, the pain rapidly increasing since Pathfinder didn't get to finish applying the med kit. "Do you mind hurrying it up though? This really hurts." Bangalore looked back to her partner.

"We have more following," he told her. Bangalore looked back down at me, the gun pointed in my face once again,

"See you on the other side," she said to me. And with a loud bang, everything went black.


	20. Chapter 20

I woke up gasping for air. I bolted straight up in the bed, frantic, my breathing rapid, when I felt someone reach over to me and put a hand on my shoulder.

"Easy bruthda," a soothing voice said. "You're alright. Deep breaths." I looked behind me to see Gibraltar. I did as he said and closed my eyes, taking a few long breaths. I looked around the room I saw in and saw Bangalore leaning up against the wall.

"Why are you guys here?" I asked once I felt a little more calmed down after coming back from the dead.

"First time's always the hardest," Bangalore answered.

"Didn't want ya to be alone," Gibraltar finished. I gave them a small smile.

"Thanks." They nodded and I scanned the room one more time, "Where's Path?"

"They usually take a little longer putting him back together." I nodded and leant back in my bed, as I did I couldn't help but bend my leg a few times, I was surprised that there was no pain. I looked back up at Bangalore who had a small grin on her face.

"You guys won?" I asked. Bangalore nodded.

"You two were our hardest competition," she said. "And we took you out faster than it's taken me to wipe out a FNG with nothing but fists," she said with a smirk. I shook my head.

"I mean you did only catch me since I was on the zip line, which was a bit of a cheep move." She grinned a little. "I have to admit though, it was a nice shot."

"You're damn right it was." I grinned. "Alright, well I'm already late for date night," she said while standing up. "This was fun," she said on her way out leaving me alone with Gibraltar.

"You can go to," I told him. "Can't have two people being late for date night." Gibraltar chuckled.

"I haven't been on a proper date in a long time brudda."

"You and me both." I leant back. "Actually, I don't think I've ever been on a real date." Gibraltar looked at me confused. "I mean, before it was a lot harder to find girls who liked other girls and then after..." I trailed off. "We never had an official date night." Gibraltar said nothing for a second.

"It'll get easier. Being without her." I nodded a few times,

"You think?"

"Oh yeah. I lost my Keo almost three years ago," he said sadly. "I still miss him, but it's easier." I slowly nodded.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I didn't know." Gibraltar smiled,

"He would want me to be happy, so I do my best to honor that." I grinned as well. "I'm sure she would want the same for you." I nodded and was about to say something more when the door to the room I was in swung open.

"Sly!" Mirage exclaimed, running up to me. He seemed to be out of breath from running. "You're okay!"

"Mirage? Weren't you at home?" I asked, baffled as to why he was here.

"Yeah but you know, after watching what happened I just thought..."

"You were worried about me?" I said with a grin.

"What?" Mirage asked drawing out the word. "No. Mirage worries about no one." He looked over at Gibraltar. "I just wanted to give my congrats to the winning team."

"Uh-huh." Gibraltar and I said at the same time. I looked over to him,

"Thanks for being here when I woke up," I told him. "And good game." He grinned and gave me a pat on the shoulder, which I now noticed didn't even hurt despite the fact that was where I had gotten shot, and left the room.

"So," Mirage started. "Happy you finally got to die?"

"It wasn't as exciting as I had been hoping."

"What were you expecting to go to an afterlife or something?" I shrugged, causing him to laugh when once again the door to the room swung open again.

"Miss Sly!" It was Pathfinder. "I am so sorry."

"For what bud?"

"Letting you down." His screen featured a sad face.

"Aw, Path," I shook my head. "It wasn't your fault." The face didn't change. "I was the one who got shot and broke my leg. You were trying to help!" The face changed back into the usual smiling one.

"But now we are down money, instead of up."

"Psh," I waved my hand out in front of me. "We can always play some more matches."

"You still would like to be on a team with me?"

"Of course!" I exclaimed. "If you're not on my team, who will get all my references?" I could see the bot almost shortciricting he was so happy.

"There is a squad match in five days!" he exclaimed. Squad matches were teams of three. I looked over at Mirage, who was now sitting down rolling his eyes at our conversation.

"Wanna join us?" I asked.

"I would love to. But," he stood up out of his chair. "I'm actually already signed up for that game."

"You are?" I asked, feeling a little hurt he didn't tell me about it. "With who?"

"Ajay and Wraith. The dream team." I rolled my eyes.

"We can always ask one of the other legends!" Pathfinder proclaimed. I ran a hand through my hair,

"I'm not really sure if any of them would want me on their team," I started.

"I believe the person who would most benefit our team would be Bloodhound!" Pathfinder continued, seeming to have either not heard me or was simply ignoring me. "Theirs skills could have been very helpful during our last match!"

"Bloodhound? I definitely don't think they would want someone like me-"

"I invited them!"

"You what?!" I looked over and saw Mirage laughing. I glared at him before looking back at Pathfinder. "I can't be on a team with Bloodhound! They're, they're a legend! There's no way-"

"They replied with 'it would be my honour'." My eyes went wide.

"Really?!" Pathfinder nodded. "And you mentioned that I was going to be on the team as well, right?" He nodded again. "Huh."

"They are coming to Mirage's tomorrow to train with us," Pathfinder said.

"Woah woah hang on!" Mirage exclaimed. "You going ask me for premis-miss-permis, uh, going to run that past me first?" Pathfinder looked at him.

"Well my living quarters are much to small for two humans to train and Bloodhound has not disclosed the location of theirs. And since Sly is living with you I assumed that would be where we would be meeting." I looked at Mirage and raised my eyebrows.

"Fine," he huffed. "But if that birds shits in my house you'll be sleeping outside," he said while pointing at me. I laughed.

"I will see you tomorrow Miss Sly," Pathfinder said before leaving the room. I looked over at Mirage.

"Once I win another game I can start looking for other places to live."

"What? No!" he said to quickly. "I mean, if you wanted to, but it's fine having you there. But whatever." I grinned a little.

"Are you saying that you actually like me hanging out with you?" Mirage shrugged,

"What? Nah I just like having someone to clean the kitchen for me every now and then," he awkwardly looked away. I rolled my eyes.

"You're a good friend Elliott." He looked up at me and grinned.

"You called me Elliott!"

"Yeah and it is never going to happen again," I said while getting out of the bed to leave.

"Oh c'mon!" he exclaimed while jumping up to follow me. "You know I don't even know your real name?!" I stopped walking out of the room and squinted my eyes.

"You never asked," I kept walking.

"That's fair," he ran to catch up with me. "You know, now that we are going to be on opposite teams we may have to kill each other." I shook my head,

"You would like that, wouldn't you?"

"I mean you did kind of make a fool of me the first time around."

"Only kind of?" Mirage playfully shoved me forward. I laughed. "And who's to say you'll kill me? This time I'm much smarter and won't be shooting your little decoys." Mirage shook his head and pulled out his phone and went into the social media app Chitter.

"I'm asking the people," he said while typing away. I reached to pull out the phone that he had given me.

"They are so going to be on my side!"

"We'll see about that!"


	21. Chapter 21

The next morning I felt myself feeling nervous about training with Bloodhound. They were one of the best players who had even been in the Apex games. Being on their team felt like a lot pressure, I didn't want to be the one who caused them to lose. I also didn't want to embarrass myself. Or them.

There was a knock on the door and I went to go open it, expecting Pathfinder since he had a tendency to show up early. However, I swung the door open to see Bloodhound, dressed as they usually were, wearing what they would be in the arena. I found myself beginning to wonder if it was always the same clothing or if they had more than one of the same thing.

"Oh! Morning Bloodhound!" I exclaimed. "I didn't expect you this early!"

"If you would like I can wait out here," they replied. I shook my head,

"Nah no worries, c'mon in!" I swung the door open the rest of the way and Bloodhound stepped inside. I noticed that their crow was perched on their shoulder. I made eye contact with it and it cawed. "Pathfinder should be here soon," I said, trying to make small talk. Bloodhound simply nodded as they looked around Mirage's house. "Probably a lot cleaner then the last time you saw it, huh?" I asked with humor in my voice. Once again, they nodded. I bit the bottom of my lip, unsure of what to do. I had no grasp on how to even talk to the hunter and I felt myself starting to worry about us being on a team together.

"Good morning friends!" a cheerful voice exclaimed. I spun around to see Pathfinder and smiled, glad that there was someone else here to break the silence between Bloodhound and I.

"Mirage's team is training here today to," I mentioned. "I don't think till later though so we can take the shooting range for now."

"Sounds fun!" Pathfinder said as we walked outside. When we got outside Bloodhound walked over to Mirage's collection of rifles.

"I've noticed you have yet to pick up a sniper," they said while looking at me. I ran a hand through my hair,

"Yeah, I mean you've seen my aim with assault rifles so you can probably guess why," I chuckled. "That and I really have no idea how to use one." Bloodhound held out a longbow to me.

"Would you like to learn?" they asked. I looked at the weapon.

"Why not." Bloodhound handed me the weapon and I carefully took it. The weapon was a lot larger than what I had been previously using and felt heavy in my hands.

"Don't let the size intimidate you," Bloodhound said, causing me to chuckle a little.

"That's what he said," I muttered. Bloodhound tilted their head confused. "That was a joke," I looked to Pathfinder but he looked just as confused as Bloodhound. "Never mind," I laughed again, awkwardly this time, and looked back at the weapon in my hand. "Okay, so I'm not even sure how to hold this thing," I admitted.

"And that's what she said!" Pathfinder exclaimed. I snorted, nearly dropping the gun on the ground. "Did I use that joke format correctly?" he asked me. I nodded, still laughing.

"Yup. And please never make a joke like that ever again." I thought for a second, "Unless your with Mirage." I shook my head and readjusted my grip on the longbow and looked back to Bloodhound. "Okay, sorry."

"Would you like me to show you?" they asked. I nodded. However instead of taking the gun from my hands Bloodhound came right up to me and began to move my hands for me, nearly wrapping themselves around me, causing me to flinch. "Pay attention to your shoulders," they told me, their face inches from mine, not seeming to care about personal space. "Relax them." I nodded and took a deep breath, lowering my shoulders. Bloodhound stepped away from me, seeming pleased with my stance. "Once your shot is lined up take a deep breath. Once you finish exhaling pull the trigger and keep the gun study, don't jerk, just slowly let the trigger go." I nodded again and aimed my weapon. I did as Bloodhound instructed and fired the shot. I had been aiming for the head of one of the targets and noticed that the shot had hit the targets chest. I looked to Bloodhound and grinned, pleased with myself for even hitting the target. "Not bad felagi."

~~~~~~

After a few more shots with the longbow we decided to work on hand-to-hand combat. After I few hours I found myself out of breath, and hungry.

"Alright," I said once the round was finished and Bloodhound had knocked me to my ass once again. "I think it's time for lunch." I stood up, "You guys hungry?" I turned around to look at Pathfinder and Bloodhound who were staring back at me. "Right," I muttered. "Look who I'm talking to." They both trailed inside behind me while I opened up the fridge and began to take out the appropriate parts to craft a sandwich. "I can make you one if you want Hound." I said holding some leftover pork. "You can take it somewhere else to eat."

"þökk fyrir, but I an fine," they replied.

"Alright," I looked to the crow, "What about Arthur? He hungry?" Bloodhound reached to their crow and stroked his neck.

"He is fine as well." I nodded and finished making my sandwich. I brought it to the table and sat down. Bloodhound and Pathfinder sat down across from me, watching me as I took a bite.

"So why name him Arthur?" I asked wanting to make this feel less awkward even though my mouth was still full. Bloodhound said nothing for a second and I finished my bite. "Sorry, you don't have to answer if that's-"

"I used to know an Arthur," they interrupted me. I slowly nodded and took another bite of my sandwich. I wanted to ask more but I figured that was all I was going to get. I looked at the crow and saw him eyeing my food.

"You sure he's not hungry?"

"Arthur knows he does not get scraps from the table." I looked down at my bread and back to Arthur. I held back a grin as I had an idea. I looked behind Bloodhound and Pathfinder to the window and stared at it.

"What is that?" I asked a few seconds later, still gazing out the window. Both Bloodhound and Pathfinder spun around in their chairs to look out the window. As they did I quickly ripped off a piece of the bread and threw it towards the crow, who caught it mid-air. Bloodhound spun around and looked to Arthur, who was happily chewing and then to me. I laughed. "Sorry." I thought I saw Bloodhound about to laugh but I wasn't sure so I put my hand over my mouth to stop myself from laughing more. Bloodhound shook their head, although I couldn't see, I had a feeling they were smiling behind the mask.

"That was clever!" Pathfinder exclaimed. "You distracted us to feed the bird!"

"I did," I said as I took another bite of my food. "Used to do it all the time with my dogs. It's how I got them to like me more than my siblings." I felt myself grin at the memory.

"You had siblings?" Bloodhound asked, changing the topic. I nodded and finished my bite.

"Two. Older brother. Younger sister." I felt the memory getting sadder as I said it out loud. I quickly finished my sandwich.

"You may still have living relatives then!" Pathfinder exclaimed. I nearly spat out my food.

"What?"

"Well if one or both of your siblings had offspring, it is probable that they also had offspring and so on!"

"Huh," I said as I took a drink of water. "Never thought about that."

"When we go find information we will have to check!" Pathfinder said happily. I shook my head with a small grin on my face.

"You are going to be searching for answers?" Bloodhound asked. I nodded,

"Yeah, Path here has an idea or two. Once we actually win a match." Bloodhound nodded.

"Well let us hope that the gods are in our favour." I found myself getting curious again.

"What gods?" I didn't realize I had said that out loud. "If you don't mind me asking." I quickly added.

"All góðr. I worship the Allfather." My eyes went wide,

"Like, the Norse gods?" Bloodhound tilted their head.

"You know of them?" I nodded,

"Yeah a little, I mean I know Thor, Odin, and Loki. Not that much more." I took another drink of water. "Oh and Hela!"

"How?" Bloodhound asked. I grinned sheepishly,

"Well, uh," I started, unsure of how to explain to someone that the gods they worship were funny fictional characters. "There were some movies about Thor in my time actually. He was a superhero on Earth in them."

"An avenger!" Pathfinder explained. "In the first movie his brother Loki attacked New York!"

"Yeah but he was being brainwashed by the mind stone," I defended out of instinct, causing Bloodhound to look even more confused, despite the fact I couldn't see their face. "Sorry, uh, it probably seems offensive." They shook their head.

"Perhaps we can watch these films one day." I felt myself grin.

"We could have a whole Marvel marathon! Maybe then some of you would get my jokes!"


	22. Chapter 22

When the day of the match came I felt the same level of nervousness as I had been feeling for the previous matches. I found myself fiddling with my phone as I forced myself to eat breakfast. Mirage walked into the kitchen in his arena get up and looked at me.

"For some reason more people think you are going to kill me today than me you," he said as he grabbed a muffin from the counter.

"Yeah," I muttered without looking up from my phone, "they know I actually have skill." I looked up to see the same muffin being hurled towards my head. "Hey!" I exclaimed as the muffin bounced off of me and onto the floor. "You got chocolate on my suit!" I stood up to go wash it off and as I passed Mirage I brought my hand up to ruffle his hair.

"Hey!" he exclaimed as he smacked my hand away. Immediately he ran to the fridge, in which he could see his reflection and smoothed it back. I chuckled. "You laugh now but I'll be the one looking good while I kick your ass." I rolled my eyes, about to make a snarky comment when Wraith walked in, also in her combat outfit. I squinted my eyes,

"Did you stay here overnight?" I had remembered Mirage's team training in the evening. Wraith didn't say anything and I looked to Mirage, who was just as confused as I was.

"Right," Mirage finally said, breaking the silence. "Your team is meeting here and then going down together?" I nodded,

"They should be here soon." And as if on cue there was a knock on a door. "Come in!" I yelled in the general direction of the door. In came Pathfinder followed by Ajay and then Bloodhound.

"Hey guys!" Mirage greeted them. He looked around at everyone. "We all ready to go?"

~~~~~~~~

I was rubbing the back of my neck after getting injected with a respawn when Pathfinder came up to Bloodhound and I.

"They have released the direction the dropship will be taking!" he exclaimed. "I think we should land-"

"Woah woah there bud," I interrupted him, eyeing the competition. "Maybe not in front of the people who are going to be trying to kill us?" Like the last match we had fought, only about half of the squads had invested in respawns. We walked over to the side of the room to look at the map.

"I say we land here," Bloodhound said pointing to the map.

"Skulltown?" I exclaimed. "Isn't that like, the busiest place to drop?" Pathfinder nodded,

"Given the amount of loot in Skulltown it is clear why!" I looked to Bloodhound.

"You really think it's a good idea taking me there?"

"You're better than you give yourself credit for," they said. "You are ready." I sighed,

"Alright." I nodded a few times. "I trust you." They nodded and began to make their way over to the dropship. Pathfinder and I followed behind. Once we got on I put my mask over my head and looked around at the other people on the ship. Mirage, Wraith, and Lifeline were already on board, all of them looking eager to get on the ground. Mirage looked over at me then to the screen of the ship which showed that he and his team were the champions. He looked back to me,

"Brings back memories," he said with a wink. I flipped him off, causing him to laugh. His team stood up to jump and we followed behind.

"See you down there," I said to Mirage as we jumped off the ship. I still had a few worries about landing in Skulltown but I had faith in Bloodhound. I followed closely behind them as we fell, trying to take note of the other teams landing in the same area.

"Sly and I will take the buildings on the right," Bloodhound said just before we hit the ground. We had went to one of the edges of Skulltown. "Pathfinder you take the left." I stumbled a little as I hit the ground but soon I was trailing behind Bloodhound. They picked up a P2020 off the floor and I ran into the next room to find an Eva-8 Auto. As I picked it up I heard the shooting begin.

"I have one here friends!" Pathfinder exclaimed through the coms. Bloodhound looked at me and for a quick second their goggles went red.

"There's one coming in," they said to me as they hopped out the window to go help Pathfinder. Arthur however stayed with me, I quickly aimed my shotgun at the door. Sure enough a second later it swung open. I pulled the trigger back on the Eva-8, prepared for the recoil and held the trigger until the person in front of me dropped to the ground dead, they didn't even get a chance to fire back. There was a second person behind the one I had taken down and I managed to get two shots into him before my mag ran out. I ducked around the corner and reloaded. When I spun back around however the person was gone. "Is that all of them?" Bloodhound asked as they walked back into the room, now wielding a Wingman along with a Flatline. I shook my head,

"I shot one twice but he vanished." Bloodhound glanced to the ground and began walking towards the body I had left. Arthur was now sitting on their shoulder as they examined the trail of blood.

"He went this way," they said. I picked up the Re-45 off of the person I had killed and began to follow. I looked up and saw Pathfinder had grappled up on top of the buildings we had just looted keeping watch. I had to jog to catch up to Bloodhound who was following the trail of blood the wounded man had left behind. However by the time I caught up with them they already had shot the person in the head with their Wingman.

"Nice work," I said as I looked to the body. They nodded and began to go back over to Pathfinder. I saw Bloodhound's victim had an R-99 and I quickly scooped it up, leaving the Re-45 before following.

"There is still one team left in Skulltown," Pathfinder said as we climbed onto the roof beside him. "They just finished another team."

"Shall we get em'?" I asked looking at Pathfinder and Bloodhound. Bloodhound looked down at their hands and mumbled something about the Allfather. When they looked up their eyes were glowing red and they jumped off of the roof, landing on their feet. Pathfinder simply reached his arm up towards the nearby building and used his grapple to pull him towards the fight, leaving me alone on the roof "I'll take that as a yes then." I muttered as I carefully climbed down to follow.

By the time I had caught up with Bloodhound and Pathfinder the fight was nearly over.

"The last one is inside," Pathfinder told me from behind cover. "Bloodhound is wounded."

"I'll go sneak up on him," Pathfinder turned around to face me however only watched as I turned myself invisible. I sprinted towards the last building and saw the last man taking cover beside the door frame. Bloodhound was in the next room over, on the ground but still firing, keeping the person at bay. I noticed that Arthur was outside the building and I began to wonder if Bloodhound had trained him to keep him out of the line of fire. The back door was open so I quickly ran inside and lined up a shot. I pulled back the trigger, landing a head shot and the person fell to the ground dead. I ran up to Bloodhound with a medkit and began applying it.

"Good work Félagi," they said as I helped them get back up. I laughed a little,

"Thanks but, you kind of did all of the work there bud."

~~~~~

"Someone traveled through here recently," Bloodhound said, bending down to the ground to examine it. We were making our way into the third ring which was just on the other side of the caves by Market. We hadn't seen any other teams since we left Skulltown.

"Really?" I asked looking at the ground. "How can you tell?" They motioned for me to crouch down beside them. They pointed to a vague outline of a footprint that I had to squint to see. "But how do you know it's recent?" Instead of answering me the hunter stood up and began to follow the footprints. "What did you like sniff it or something? Should I lick it?!" I looked to Bloodhound and saw their shoulders rise and fall quickly. I grinned, "Was that a laugh?" I exclaimed.

"Given the body language, there is a chance they laughed," Pathfinder told me.

"I was beginning to think you didn't have a sense of humor Blood!" I laughed as I jogged to follow them. They put a finger to their lips, shushing me. I quickly shut my mouth and crouched down beside them at the edge of the caves.

"See them?" they asked me, pointing towards the other side of the river. I squinted my eyes and saw a team of people looting the houses at the top of the hill. I saw three people inside the house and then one standing, looking over the river. I felt myself grin,

"It's Mirage!"

"Careful not to shoot that decoy friend," Pathfinder told me.

"Yeah, yeah. What's the plan?"


	23. Chapter 23

We had thought that we had the advantage on Mirage's team however only a few seconds after us noticing them it appeared that Wraith had sensed our presence and all three of them were taking defensive positions.

"Okay," I said to my team members. "I have to be the one to kill Mirage." Bloodhound tilted their head, confused. "We made a bet. Actually, a lot of people were making bets." I recalled the social media war we had started when we had told the people we were on opposite teams. People had taken sides for which one of us was going to kill the other. It had been amusing to watch. I looked back over to my teammates, Pathfinder was keeping tabs on them with a triple take.

"I have a shot," he told us.

"Take it," Bloodhound instructed. We heard someone cry out in pain letting us know he had landed the shot. I looked back to the house they were in and saw that Wraith was gone. It looked like it had been Mirage that got hit and Lifeline was quickly trying to patch him up. "Sly. Can you turn invisible and get towards them? I can hold their focus." I nodded and turned myself invisible. I ran out from our cover and began to sprint over to where Mirage was being healed. As I was running I saw Wraith coming out of her void. I grinned as I realized she didn't know I knew where she was.

"Wraith is behind the zip line," I said into the coms as I ran past her. Bloodhound began focusing their fire on Wraith while Pathfinder was still guarding the house Mirage and Lifeline were in. I whipped out my R-99 as I turned myself visible once I was inside. Mirage was still down on the ground so I emptied my mag into Ajay. "One down," I said as she hit the ground.

"Wraith is down as well," Bloodhound replied. I looked back to where Mirage had been sitting and saw ten of him instead of one.

"For God's sake Mirage!" I exclaimed. I frantically looked around at the decoys. Some were sitting on the ground pretending to be injured while others were standing or walking around, creating chaos inside the small building. I quickly reloaded my gun. "Get out here and fight me like a man!" My team was still down by the river and I heard the sound of actual footsteps behind me compared to the decoys lack of sound. I grinned and got ready to turn around and fire at him when all of a sudden I heard Pathfinder's Triple Take go off.

"Attention," the announcer said. "Champion eliminated." I spun around to see Mirage on the ground.

"Pathfinder!" I exclaimed. "What did I say about me killing him?!"

"I'm sorry friend, I didn't want him to hurt you," he said as he grappled up towards me. His screen was displaying a sad face. "I'm sorry I upset you." I sighed.

"I can't be mad at you Path." His screen changed back into a smiley face as Bloodhound and Arthur walked into our building.

"Only one squad remains," they said as we looked over the loot. I grabbed some more ammo.

"Looks like the ring will be closing around us."

"I say we hold down this position!" Pathfinder said. "We will have the best vantage point if we climb onto the roof."

"I agree," Bloodhound said. I nodded and followed them outside to climb onto the top of the house. We all lay down on our stomachs glancing over the roof. Since the ring was behind us we didn't have to worry about the last team coming from that direction and we could focus on looking towards the exit of caves and bunker. I was in the middle between Pathfinder and Bloodhound, both of them seeming very focused, even Arthur was perched on the roof looking focused. I got my guns out, ready like them, waiting for something to happen. After a minute I sighed and set my gun down in front of me.

"So..." I started. "We just, wait?" Bloodhound nodded. I groaned and put my head on the roof. Pathfinder looked over to me.

"You look bored friend." I lifted my head up and nodded.

"If you would like we can go hunt for the last squad," Bloodhound said.

"Nah, it would be a bad idea to give up this spot." They nodded and went back to keeping watch. I rolled myself over onto my back. I pulled out one of the grenades I had in my pocket and started tossing it up and then catching it to keep myself entertained. A few throws in however I missed catching it and the grenade rolled off of the roof. I put my head back and sighed again. "We could try to draw them out!" I finally said.

"How do you suggest we do that?" Bloodhound asked. I thought for a second.

"Pathfinder, when you said you have a collection of pop culture from like 1920 or something, does that include music?"

"It does! Every song created since 1943 is stored in my hard drive." I felt myself grinning at the possibilities. 

"Alright, I have a plan," I finally said.

"Is it better or worse than your Caustic plan?" Bloodhound asked. I thought for a second.

"I suppose that depends if you agree that was the best plan in the history of plans." Bloodhound had no reply. "Okay, so Path is going to play some music then this last team will come out of hiding if they think our guard is down."

"Why not simply go hunt them then?" Bloodhound asked. I shrugged,

"Not as fun." I took a deep breath. "Pathfinder. Play _Eye of the Tiger_ by Survivor." The song began to play through Pathfinder's speakers and I found myself grinning from ear to ear, not only from the fact that this plan of mine was idiotic, but also the fact that I hadn't heard any of the songs I enjoyed listening to since I had been unfrozen. I stood up on the roof and began tapping my foot. Once the guitar started I began strumming an invisible guitar.

"What are you doing?" Bloodhound asked, watching me dance to the music.

"Air guitar baby!" I had a feeling that they were rolling their eyes.

"I'm going to go hunt the last squad," they finally said, seeming to have had enough with my antics.

"Alright. We'll see who can find them first!" I said just before the first verse started. I began to sing.

_Risin' up, back on the street_

_Did my time, took my chances_

_Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet_

_Just a man and his will to survive_

"But Sly!" Pathfinder interrupted. "None of us are men!" I laughed and went into the next verse. 

_So many times, it happens too fast_

_You trade your passion for glory_

_Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past_

_You must fight just to keep them alive_   
  


By the time the song went into the chorus I was lost in the music. My eyes were closed as I swayed along to the music, singing at the top of my lungs.   
  
  


_It's the eye of the tiger, it's the thrill of the fight_

_Risin' up to the challenge of our rival_

_And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night_

_And he's watchin' us all with the eye-_   
  
  


As I was holding out the last note a gun rang out and I felt a bullet pierce my arm causing the end of the note to turn into a small scream.

"Found them!" I yelled as I ducked down behind the roof with a syringe. As I did I noticed that Pathfinder had turned off the music. "Path!" I shouted to him. "Turn it back on!"

"Why?"

"We need battle music!"

"Will it improve our fighting?" the bot asked.

"Absolutely!" The music turned back on. I finished applying the syringe and rolled my shoulder, making sure it was okay. I grinned as I brought out my Eva-8 again and jumped down off of the roof towards where Bloodhound was. Their eyes were glowing red again and they were running towards where the shot had come from. It was a two story house that was just across the river from where I had been dancing. Pathfinder had stayed behind on the house to keep a sniping position.

"There's only two of them," Bloodhound said as they neared the door.

"I'll climb up to the second floor," I said as I began to scale up the wall to the second door, the end of _Eye of the Tiger_ could still be heard echoing through the valley. I heard Bloodhound firing downstairs so I kicked open the door to the top. The second person was aiming at the staircase as her teammate went down. A Triple Take shot came from Pathfinder through the window, hitting her in the shoulder. As she recoiled back I pulled the trigger on my shotgun and three shots later she hit the ground with a thud.

"Attention," the announcer said. "Winner decided." I threw my gun on the ground and ran down the stairs.

"We did it!" I exclaimed. Bloodhound was cleaning blood off of their gun and looked at me.

"Happ kill," they said. I looked out the window and saw Pathfinder zipping towards us. Once he hit the ground he held up hand,

"High-five?"


	24. Chapter 24

When we got off of the ship that was taking us back off the island we were greeted with a group of reporters, much like after my first win. Pathfinder and I waved to some of them as we stepped off the ship, Bloodhound walking in between us. As we walked towards them they eagerly began shoving cameras and microphones in our faces.

"Quite the match!" one of them said, microphone pointed in Bloodhound's face. I could tell from their stance that they were not enjoying the press so I quickly stepped in front of them.

"It was wasn't it!" I exclaimed as I took the mask off of my face. 

"I didn't expect you to have a good singing voice!" the reporter went on. I laughed,

"Oh you heard that?" This made the reporter laugh. "But yeah, I was actually a bit of a performer back in my day."

"Oh?"

"Yeah my school did musicals every year. You are talking to one of the supporting leads from _How to Succeed In Business_!" I found myself grinning at the memory, while it seemed to baffle the reporter.

"I've never heard of that." he finally said. I laughed again.

"I wouldn't imagine you have." I looked over at my teammate. "Path, play some for us!" Pathfinder began to play the opening number to the musical. The reporter looked at me, even more confused than before.I took the chance to keep moving through the crowd. Leading my team to get our winnings, humming along to the music as we went. When we made it inside and away from the crowd I told Pathfinder to turn off the music.

"What makes a musical different from a normal song?" Pathfinder asked.

"Musicals are like plays, just with music and dancing."

"You dance?" Bloodhound asked. I laughed,

"Barley! There was a reason I wasn't the lead!" A man came into the room to hand us our winnings. I happily took the money knowing it would help lead me towards some answers. "Hey," I said to my team as we began to leave. "You guys want to come over for a drink or something?" Once again I was given blank stares. "Right. Sorry I keep forgetting. Well, I'm sure Mirage's team will be coming over to watch the game, you two are more than welcome!"

"I wish I could friend, but I have other business to attend to," Pathfinder said while walking out the room. I slowly nodded, trying to figure out what other business the robot would have to go to. I looked to Bloodhound.

"We shall see," they said, following Pathfinder out the door. I put my hands on my hips.

"I don't think I'll ever figure out those two," I said to myself as I walked out. However by the time I reached the door they both had disappeared. "Huh." I looked around and decided that I needed to go rub my victory in Mirage's face, even though I didn't kill him. I made my way over to the building were they performed the respawns and began peeking in doorways till I found Mirage and his team. All three of them were still asleep but the screens to the side told me they had all been revived. I plopped myself down into the only chair and the room and pulled out my phone and began scrolling through my chitter page. Already there were lots of posts about the game we had just fought. I found myself even laughing a little at everyone's reactions, all of them eagerly wanting to know what I had to say about the match on my page. I looked back over to Mirage, who was still sleeping peacefully. I looked down at my phone again, then back to Mirage while grinning.

I stood up out of the chair and walked up beside his bed. I turned on my phones camera and snapped a picture of myself giving a peace sign beside sleeping Mirage and posted it with a caption ' _he's a lot easier to handle when he's dead_ '.

Almost instantly the post was reaching thousands of people, all who were commenting on it. One comment stuck out to me.

' _How many likes for you to dump that glass water on him?_ ' I bit back a laugh as I looked at it. It would be funny. I clicked reply to the post.

 _'Zero._ ' I grabbed the glass of water that was sitting on the table beside Mirage and pulled out the phone and began to record a video. I had the glass above Mirage's head when I saw his eyes flicker open. I quickly reached my arm back.

"What are you doing?" he asked, sitting up, eyeing me, the glass of water, and my phone which was filming suspiciously.

"Uh," I stuttered. "Figured you would be thirsty when you woke up." He grinned.

"Oh, well thanks." He reached out and grabbed the glass of water from my hand. He took a sip and a second later he spun the glass around and threw the water in my face.

"You son of a bitch!" I exclaimed wiping water from my face. Mirage started laughing. I shook my head and turned off my phone. 

"You still have to post that!" Mirage said between chuckles. I finished drying my face and looked down to my phone. ' _I tried. Really did_ ' I wrote before posting it and admitting defeat.

"I will never get peace and quiet with you two will I?" Wraith asked sitting up in her bed. I looked down at my suit which was covered in water and grinned.

"I'm sorry," I said. "Do you want a hug to make up for it?" I held my arms out and some of the water could be seen dripping off of me. She reached over to the glass of water beside her and held it up defensively. I held my hands up and laughed. I looked over and saw that Ajay was awake. She looked at me,

"So? You kill him?" she asked nodding over to Mirage.

"Oh yeah," I said, probably a little to quickly. "Totally. Hundred percent." All three of them looked at me, eyebrows raised. "Path sniped him from the window," I said while looking down at the ground.

"Ha!" Mirage laughed. He swung his legs around the side of his bed. "Good thing to. I was about to win."

"You wish." Mirage rolled his eyes and looked to his team.

"Drinks at my place?" he asked them. "We can watch the game."

"Oh and it's a good finale." I added.

"What stupid thing did you do this time?" Mirage asked.

"What makes you think it was stupid?" He raised his eyebrows and I laughed. "Okay it totally was, but it was super fun." 

~~~~~~

We were back at Mirages watching the match we had just played. Once again I found myself sitting on the floor, by choice this time, not because there were no seats. And the fact that Bangalore had came as well and her and Ajay were taking up half of the couch. The match had just started replaying on T.V when there was a knock on the door. Mirage looked counfused.

"Who would that be?" he asked.

"Oh! I invited Bloodhound!" I said, standing up to go answer the door.

"You what?!"

"Was I not supposed to?" I scratched my head. "I mean I figured you guys always hang out-"

"It's fine," Wraith cut in. "They usually never show up when we invite them to casual things." I shrugged.

"Guess I'm just more fun to be around."

"Now that's funny!" Mirage laughed as I opened the door.

"Hey Hound! C'mon in, we're just starting!" It looked as if Bloodhound was hesitating, unsure of if they really did want to be here. I had a feeling that they never spent much time hanging out with other people. "I got some of those chips Arthur likes!" I said, trying to help them feel more relaxed. They nodded and stepped inside.

"Hey Blood!" Ajay said with a wave. She brought her legs in and got closer to Bangalore to make room on the couch for them.

"Alright!" I said as I came back into the living room with a bowl of chips, hitting play on the T.V. "You guys are really going to like this."


	25. Chapter 25

I was outside grabbing some air after we had finished watching the match. It had been fun to watch their reactions to it and then I had to spend ten minutes trying to explain different types of music from when I was from. I had even tried singing a few of the songs since Pathfinder wasn't there. I was leaning up against the banister on the deck when I heard movement behind me. I spun around to see who it was.

"Oh, hey Hound." They nodded in response. "I thought you had left already."

"What makes you think that?" they asked. I shrugged,

"I know they can be quite the handful," I said nodding back towards everyone inside. "Myself included," I added. Bloodhound came to stand beside me.

"Well there is a reason I don't come to many of these things." I laughed a little,

"Did you just make a joke?" Bloodhound shrugged and I laughed again. I shook my head and then looked back up to the sky.

"Kyn-ligr, looking up at an unfamiliar sky," they said. "Strange that is." I nodded,

"I find that I spend my time trying to find constellations I know. No success as you would imagine." Bloodhound looked up to the sky and a few seconds later pointed at a set of stars.

"Calva's Raven," they said. I looked up and watched as they traced out the lines. "Over there is the Cerulean Australis. The star in the middle is used similar to Earth's North Star." I nodded and looked up at the stars grinning.

"You know much about Earth?" I asked.

"A little. A hunter must be aware of their surroundings." I tilted my head.

"Are you from?" I started. Bloodhound began walking away.

"I must be going. Thank you for inviting me felagi."

"Yeah, anytime. Have a good night pal." Bloodhound and Arthur took off down the path towards the front of Mirage's house. I shook my head a few times, they were quite the mystery.

~~~~~

It was the middle of the night when I woke up sweating. I rolled over in my bed, I had been having nightmares ever since I first was thawed however everytime they felt just as frightening. I rolled over in my bed to get up and get a drink of water when I saw a figure inches from my face.

"Hello Miss Sly!" a chipper voice exclaimed. I was not expecting anyone to be in the room and I found myself screaming as I jumped out of my bed, flinging myself backwards and sticking myself to the wall. I looked back and saw Pathfinder with an exclamation point on his chest. "I did not mean to startle you."

"Pathfinder!" I put a hand on my chest and climbed down from the wall. "What the hell are you doing in my room?! While I was sleeping?!"

"Well I did not want to wake you so Elliot said I could wait here till you woke up!" I shook my head.

"I'm going to strangle him."

"Are you aware you move a lot in your sleep?" Pathfinder asked. I nodded. "Healthy sleeping for humans involves staying still." I laughed a little at his simple explanation,

"Can't help it." I shook my head, "How long have you been standing there?"

"Only a couple hours." I ran a hand across my face and sighed.

"And why are you here?"

"I have made contact with a man who can get us access into the back rooms of the technology museum, where they store old information." I nodded a few times,

"And you had to come tell me this at three in the morning?"

"It's actually four twelve A.M!" I lay back down in my bed and threw my blankets over me.

"We can go in the morning. Humans need sleep." Pathfinder reached down and adjusted my blankets, as if he was tucking me in.

"What shall I do till then?" I thought for a few seconds.

"Go wait in Mirage's room," I said with a sly grin on my face. "I'm sure he'll want to know the plan when he wakes up." Pathfinder's screen displayed a smiley face as he trotted out of my room, closing the door behind him.

~~~~~~~

I woke up to Mirage screaming. A few seconds later he was in my doorway, waving his fist.

"You stuck him with me first," I said before he had the chance to say anything. "I was only repaying the favor." I could see he was about to protest but instead he simply sighed.

"You're going to find answers today?" I nodded. "I'm coming to."

"I figured you would."

"It'll be fun! I hear the internet was pretty wild back in the day." I grinned a little.

"Maybe I'll have time to catch up on all the memes I missed."

"The whats?"

"Meme. M-E-M-E." I said as I rolled myself out of bed. "I'm going to shower." I said walking into the bathroom.

"Wouldn't that be pronounced me-me?" Mirage yelled at me through the door. I laughed as I started up the shower.

~~~~~

"I made breakfast friends!" Pathfinder exclaimed as I walked into the kitchen. "Since we have a busy day ahead of us, I have made sure to incorporate all of the food groups!" I looked down at variety of food he had assembled. Some of it didn't look that bad.

"Thanks Path," I said as he handed me a plate. He handed Mirage a plate but he held up a hand.

"Coffee first Path."

"Coffee is not a part of any of the necessary food groups," Pathfinder protested. "Also it is not-"

"Shhh." Mirage said as he took a long a sip from his coffee mug. I rolled my eyes and sat down at the table beside Mirage. Pathfinder came over as well.

"Elliott," Pathfinder started. "Are you aware that you move a lot while you sleep?"

"Not this again," I muttered to myself.

"Healthy sleeping for humans-"

"Enough Path," I finally said. "He probably was just dreaming."

"Something like that," Mirage muttered while looking down. I looked over at him.

"I get them to."

"Of the arena?" he asked. I shook my head.

"Usually my family."

"Same here." I gave Mirage a reassuring grin. He hadn't talked much about his family with me, but I knew the general idea of what happened. Pathfinder looked between the two of us, I could practically see his gears turning.

"Dreams would not result in the same level of movement. Unless they were nightmares that is." Mirage and I both raised our eyebrows. "Oh!" Pathfinder exclaimed as he put the pieces together. "No wonder you both look unrested." I laughed out loud.

"Thanks buddy." I shook my head. "So what's the plan for today?"

~~~~~

"Right this way," our tour guide said to us. In order for us to get the information, Mirage and I were forced to go on a tour of the museum. Since there were only two employees and only one of them was helping us, Pathfinder went to go download information while we distracted the other employee. He didn't seem to thrilled about giving a tour but when he saw who it was he agreed to show us around.

The focus of the museum was technology and I found myself fascinated by what I saw. All of the items we looked at were all from after I had been frozen, meaning all of it was new to me. I had many questions for our tour guide, who seemed annoyed that I didn't know what any of them were, however not as annoyed as Mirage was, despite the fact that he was filming the whole thing 'for the fans'.

"This is basic knowledge!" he exclaimed when I had a question about one of the so called Titans we saw.

"I'm sorry I haven't seen as many space robot things as you!" I exclaimed.

"Because you're from two thousand," our tour guide said, clearly not believing any of it.

"Do you have anything from then?" I asked. "Then I could prove to everyone that I'm old!" The tour guide rolled his eyes.

"Follow me," he muttered. I looked to Mirage and grinned as I followed behind. He led us into a corner room which was labeled Earth Technology. "Most of the items in this room are from around twenty one hundred."

"That's to late!" I began walking around the room. "Okay! This one looks, kind of like a mac!"

"Which is what exactly?" Mirage asked.

"A type of computer. You can tell cause apple on the back." I was pointing towards the item. "Maybe a tablet or something? It looks newer."

"It's seven hundred years old," Mirage deadpanned.

"Well so am I!" I looked to the tour guide. "So? What is it?"

"I don't really know." I couldn't help but laugh a little. I kept walking and as I went through the room the items started getting older and older.

"Hey!" I exclaimed when I saw a display case. "This is an Xbox!" I ran up and put my hand on the glass. "I had the exact one!"

"What is it?" Mirage asked me.

"It's a console. For video games."

"You needed one of those if you wanted to play video games?" I nodded.

"Then you would have to buy the game separately on a disc."

"What's a disc?" the tour guide asked.

"Really?!" I asked him. "Aren't you supposed to be the one who knows these things?" He shrugged.

"Friends!" Pathfinder exclaimed walking into the room. "We are ready to go!" The tour guide looked at us suspiciously.

"Hang on Path." We had almost made it to the end of the room.

"Sly!" Mirage warned, looking back at the exit.

"But! There's," I looked over at the last item and laughed. "There's a Bop It!"

"Yeah none of us have any idea what that is," the tour guide said. I waved my arms out,

"It's a toy! You know, Bop it," I said in the voice of the game. "Pull it!" I looked over to Pathfinder. "Little help?" Pathfinder began to play the music. "See?!"

"Ok, we should get going now," Mirage said to the kid who had shown us around. "Thank you for your time."


	26. Chapter 26

We were back at Mirage's house as Pathfinder began to download the information he found onto a computer for us to see.

"So you didn't look at it?" I asked while nervously fiddling with my old iPhone.

"I was unable to. The files were stored on a different type of server. I am converting them right now." I nodded, anxiety filling me up from the inside.

"Hey," Mirage said putting a hand on my shoulder. "It'll be fine."

"But what if it's not? We just stole seven hundred year old files!" 

"Copied," Mirage pointed out. "Besides no one even cares about any of that. Especially if we were explaining what we were looking for! This happened seven hundred years ago kid, I don't think we're going to unravel some wild conspiracy theory."

"Hasn't my whole being here turned into a wild conspiracy theory?" I said.

"Alright, you do have a point there." I put my head into my hands.

"Okay friends!" Pathfinder spoke up. "I have downloaded all of the information. I did as you instructed and found anything I could surrounding the name you had given me from after the last date you remembered."

"Wait, wait, wait," Mirage interrupted. "You told Pathfinder your real name but not me?!"

"I also downloaded anything related to your family as well as any police reports with your name in them."

"There were police reports?" I was beginning to feel sick.

"Well yes, you were a missing person. I have not processed any of the other information as it is personal."

"Right. Thanks Path. For all of this." He nodded a few times.

"Shall we see what we found?"

"Screw it." I opened up the files on the holographic screen in front of me. Looking back at me were the faces of my family and friends.

"Under each person you will find their social media profiles, since it is the most effective way to see what they did after you were gone." I nodded and looked at all of the faces, wondering who to start with. I clicked on my mom. The first thing I saw was a post asking if anyone had seen me. I felt tears welling up in my eyes, I couldn't imagine what I must've put her through.

"We'll let you be." Mirage said, grabbing Pathfinder by the shoulder.

"No," I said shaking my head. "I don't want to be alone."

"Okay," Mirage said sitting back down. "You want to tell us about your family?" he asked looking at the picture of all of us on the screen. I nodded, grinning through the tears.

"So that's Ian, my older brother."

~~~~~~~

"I have made a list of your living relatives!" Pathfinder exclaimed while we were taking a break. We had just finished going through what had happened to all of my friends and family. I had yet to dive into the police reports. "Out of your seven nieces and nephews, six of them had a total of twenty one offspring. Of those twenty one-"

"Okay I get it." I interrupted. "They had a lot of kids."

"From what I can determine based on the information I have now, there are approximately five hundred and eight people alive who have descended from your siblings. 

"Five hundred?!" Mirage and I exclaimed at the same time.

"How is that even possible?" I asked.

"Well, as humans began to colonize more planets there was much more room for offspring and -"

"Right," I cut in again. "So, is there anyone on the list we know?" Pathfinder pulled up the list and I began to scroll through the names

"Don't be ridiculous." Mirage said. "The chances of you being related to-"

"Oh my god," I said as I stopped.

"Does that say?" Mirage cut in. I started laughing. "Pathfinder please tell me this is wrong."

"There is only a four percent chance that my calculations were incorrect." I began laughing harder. Mirage started groaning.

"What's going on in here?" Wraith asked walking into the room. I stopped myself from laughing.

"I'm related to Mirage!" She looked at me confused but I started laughing again.

"Technically," Pathfinder started. "You would be his great great great great great great-"

"Just tell us the total greats!" I exclaimed.

"Twentieth great aunt!" I started laughing again, Wraith put a hand over her mouth to conceal her grin.

"This is the best thing to ever happen!" I reached over to my phone. "I have to post about this!" Mirage reached over and smacked the phone out of my hands.

"We will never speak of this."

"Oh I think we will nephew." Even Wraith had started chuckling.

"I officially hate all of you," Mirage said.

"Okay, okay, wait." I said in between laughs. "I'm sorry."

"No you're not."

"No! I'm not!" I took a few deep breaths. "Okay. I'm done laughing." I took a second to catch my breath. "I needed that." Mirage shook his head. "Let's go look at those police reports now."

"You sure you want to?" Mirage asked, getting back to a serious tone. I nodded.

~~~~~~

"So it looks like there was a series of missing people from your city around the time of your last memory." Pathfinder explained. He found it easiest to understand the information since it had come from a variety of sources he was able to easily sum it all up. "Most of them other university students." I nodded a few times.

"And? What did they find?" I asked. Mirage and Wraith were sitting beside me and I was glad they were. I didn't want to be hearing any of this alone.

"Nothing. They declared all of the cases cold cases in 2022."

"What?!"

"However! In 2026 while doing construction a man stumbled upon twelve bodies being stored in cryogenic containers."

"Why didn't you lead with that?!" Mirage exclaimed.

"Twelve?"

"The case was quickly scooped up by the government who said that all twelve people were dead when in reality ten of the twelve of the bodies were dead. Two however were still being preserved and they decided to keep them in the frozen state." I gulped.

"Me?" Pathfinder nodded. 

"I cannot find out what happened after that. The files say the government was instructed not to interact with the two people other than to make sure the machines were running. However by 2193 Earth was mainly abandoned."

"Leaving me behind." I nodded a few times, trying to process. "I really was forgotten about." I sighed and for a second no one said anything. "What about the other one?" I asked.

"The other who?" Pathfinder questioned.

"The other person. That was frozen. I was the only one down there when I woke up."

"It was a woman by the name of Renee Blasey."

"Doesn't sound familiar."

"Here is a photo." Pathfinder said pulling up a picture of the woman on the screen in front of us. I saw the photo and felt my mouth drop.

"Is that-?" Mirage started, his mouth open as well.

"That's me." Wraith said quietly. We all looked over to her. Her face was whiter than I had ever seen it.

"Hey," Mirage started.

"I have to go," she said.

"Wraith-" But before Mirage could finish the sentence Wraith had disappeared into the void. I leant back in my chair and Mirage put his head in his hands. It was silent for a few moments when Pathfinder finally spoke up. 

"What an interesting development!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder that this was written well before the Wraith lore / Event came out please don't hate me


	27. Chapter 27

The next morning we still hadn't heard from Wraith. I was sitting around the kitchen table anxiously fiddling with my dead iPhone. Mirage came into the kitchen.

"Have you heard from her?" I asked. He shook his head.

"She'll come around. She always does." Now I shook my head.

"I don't know. I just," I sighed. "I just can't imagine what she's thinking right now."

"Me to." It fell silent. "And what are you thinking?" Mirage asked. I put my head on the table.

"I don't even know." I lifted my head back up and looked at Mirage. "I thought that knowing about how I was frozen would answer questions. But now knowing Wraith was involved just makes so many more questions! Like she woke up in an IMC building right?" Mirage nodded. "So, so what does that mean for me? If we were frozen in the same place how did she get there but I stayed back? Or did they take me at one point? What if-" Mirage put a hand on his shoulder.

"I don't know what to tell you kid." I sighed again. "I have a feeling Wraith is going to be looking further into this, this is the first lead she's gotten since I've known her." I nodded a few times. "You just need to be patient." I rolled my eyes. "You sure you don't want to come with me today?" I shook my head. Once a week Mirage would go out for brunch with his mom and he had been bugging me to come for a few weeks now.

"I'm okay."

"You are family," he said with a wink. I laughed a little,

"Maybe next time."

"I'll hold you to that."

~~~~~

It had only been a few minutes since Mirage left when there was a knock on the door. I jumped up, hoping that it would be Wraith. Instead of Wraith I saw Bangalore and Bloodhound.

"Hey guys," I said swinging open the door. "Mirage isn't here right now."

"We actually wanted to talk to you," Bloodhound said. I raised my eyebrows.

"Oh, well I am here." I motioned for them to come in. "What can I do for you?"

"We are signed up to participate in a squad match tomorrow morning," Bangalore said. I nodded and she went on. "Our third team mate was supposed to be Ajay but she had an emergency she needed to go deal with."

"Oh no!" I exclaimed. "Is everything okay?"

"One of her friends was injured," Bloodhound stated. Bangalore rolled her eyes.

"From the sounds of it he did it to himself." I tilted my head. "Tried to win a race or something by using a grenade to go faster." I whistled.

"Can't imagine that went over well." She shook her head.

"If we don't find someone to take her place tomorrow, we can't participate," Bloodhound said.

"Sorry to hear that." I replied. "So what do you need me for?" Bangalore raised her eyebrows and Bloodhound crossed their arms. "Oh!" I realized. "You want me?" They both nodded. "Really? _Me_?" I pointed to myself. "What was no one else available? Does Arthur not count as a team mate?"

"Something like that," Bloodhound replied while looking to their bird. I grinned.

"So?" Bangalore asked. "You in?" I thought for a second.

"Okay, sure. I would love to!"

"Great," Bangalore gave me a pat on the shoulder. "We'll see you there." And with that statement both her and Bloodhound left, closing the door behind them. I stood there for a second.

"What just happened?"

~~~~~

The next morning I arrived an hour before we were supposed to be at the arena. I was expecting to be the first person there so I was surprised when there a few players milling about. I looked around and didn't see Bloodhound or Bangalore so I decided to go over to the snack table. I was about to bite into a fruit that resembles an apple when suddenly there was a face in front of me, causing me to flinch backwards.

"Hello Sly," Caustic said.

"Sup," I replied while taking a bite of the fruit. However, it was extremely bitter and when I took a bite I nearly spit it out. Caustic raised his eyebrows. "Thought it was an apple." I muttered tossing the unknown food into the garbage beside the table, but I missed the garbage can and the food simply rolled across the floor and right in front of Caustic's feet. I gulped and faked a grin.

"Facistinating," Caustic said. "It seems my presence causes you anxiety."

"What?" I asked, drawing out the word. "I mean we are about to go and kill each other so I would say if anything is causing me anxiety it would be that." I rambled.

"Would I be able to take your blood-" Caustic started when he was interrupted.

"Felagi!" I heard Bloodhound call from across the room. I quickly waved bye to Caustic and jogged over to Bloodhound.

"Thank you," I said to them. "I was dying over there." Bloodhound nodded. "I think he was about to ask me to take my blood pressure. Or maybe a blood sample. I'm not sure which is more creepy."

"The blood sample is," Bloodhound replied causing me to laugh.

"Morning," Bangalore said as she came up to us. "We ready to go?"

~~~~~

"Wait you were being serious about landing on the supply ship?" I yelled to my team as we jumped off of the ship. Through the comms I heard Bangalore laugh, I guess she had been serious. I shook my head and began to focus on landing on the ship. I was expecting myself to miss it so when I landed on the top, I was a little surprised. I frantically looked around me and watched as another team had landed with us on, on the moving ship. Bangalore had picked up a gun and was in the middle of taking down one of the enemies with it while Bloodhound was fighting one with just their fists.

  
There were no more guns on the ground so I made a break for the lower layer of the ship. Apparently the last person on the other team had the same idea. There was a peacekeeper sitting on the very edge of the ship and we both reached for it at the same time. Behind me I could hear Bangalore almost at me but I knew she wouldn't make it here in time. As I reached for the peacekeeper the opponent grabbed it as well and as we fought for it they lost their footing. I let go of the peacekeeper and kicked them, causing them to stumble off of the side of the ship. As they fell however, they reached out and grabbed the front of my suit and pulled me down with them. I fell forward, off of the ship and quickly made sure that my foot would stick. The person had lost their grip on me and I quickly used my stickiness to get my other leg to the bottom of the ship, leaving me hanging by my feet and I quickly took a step away so they couldn't grab me as they tumbled down towards the ground, leaving me sticking to the bottom of the ship.

I took a deep breath as I looked down at the ground, a fall from this height would definitely hurt a lot more than the zip line fall. As carefully as I could I brought my hands up and let them stick to the bottom of the ship as well, allowing me to crawl.

"Did Sly go down?" I heard Bangalore asking from on top of the ship. I couldn't make out what Bloodhound said as I had accidentally shut off my coms. "The monitor says she's still alive." I had made it to the edge of the ship when I realized I wouldn't be able to pull myself up. "If she hit the ground, she won't be alive much longer." Bangalore went on above me.

"Hey guys?" I said, my arms and legs getting tired from sticking so long. They didn't hear me. "Guys?!" I said a little louder.

"Did you hear that?" Bangalore asked. I heard their footsteps getting closer till I saw them standing on the grate above me.

"Little help down here?" Both of them looked down. "I can't hold this much longer."

"Well I'll be damned," Bangalore said with a laugh. I crawled over to the side and stuck my hand out.

"I got you Felagi," Bloodhound said as they grabbed my hand. They hoisted me up and I crawled the rest of the way on the ship. Once I was up I laid down on my back, out of breath.

"That was fun!" I exclaimed in between breaths. I sat up and looked at my teammates.

"The ship will be going down outside of Airbase," Bloodhound said. "We will be landing in a minute."

"And it sounds like there's still a gunfight going on in there." Bangalore commented. I nodded a few times before standing up. I looked down at myself and realized that I still had nothing. The other two noticed this as well. I grinned,

"Anyone got a gun I can borrow? I may have thrown my peacekeeper to the bottom of the canyon." 


	28. Chapter 28

The ship began to land just outside of Airbase. It was just behind the tiny village on the one side of Bunker. The ring location had been revealed and it was all the way over by Bridges, meaning we had quite the run in front of us. The three of us had exchanged weapons and I was now weilding a Flatline and an Re-45. Zip lines began to stretch out across the supply ship and I looked over to my team,

"The ring is going to be moving in four minutes," Bangalore said. "We need to get moving. Now." I nodded and followed her off of the zipline headed towards the small cluster of buildings, Bloodhound behind us. I looked around at the buildings and saw that all of the doors had been swung open.

"Looks like they've been here already," I said, pointing out the obvious.

"Recently as well," Bloodhound mentioned. "Can't be more than a minute." I looked over at them,

"How can you even tell that?!" Instead of answering Bloodhound took off jogging, towards the lower end of the area, Bangalore following behind them. I shook my head and followed behind. As we neared the buildings, weapons ready, Bangalore held her arm out and put a fist up. I didn't think much of it and as I walked past I gave her a fist bump. I neared the door to the building and was instantly greeted with an Eva-8 firing into my chest.

Thankfully, the shot hit my shields and knocked me back, however the person wielding the shotgun fired again and I felt the bullet pierce through my right leg. I cursed as I stumbled to the ground. As I fell I felt someone grab the back of my suit and drag me behind the building.

"What the Hell was that?!" Bangalore yelled at me. Before giving me a chance to reply she had taken off again into the house. I reached into my backpack in search of a syringe but came up empty handed.

Inside the house there were a lot of shots being fired, I had no clear idea on who was winning. I knew that I needed to go and help so I forced myself to stand up. I figured the best way to move without using my leg was to use my stickiness so just using my hands and one of my legs I crawled onto the side of the building and went in through the window. Once I was inside I could make out what was happening and realized that yes I was here, but I did not have my weapons out. There was only one enemy left standing and Bloodhound was reloading their weapon. I couldn't see Bangalore. The enemy was about to fire at Bloodhound so I made a rash decision and flung myself off of the wall and onto the enemy. Both of us clattered to the ground, but not before the enemy fired their shot into my stomach. I saw Bloodhound run up to us and they picked me up and practically threw me off of the enemy so they could put the last bullet in the guys head. I rolled myself over and groaned. Bloodhound was shaking their head,

"Drittstøvel," they muttered under their breath.

"What?" I asked as they crouched down in front of me with a med kit.

"I called you a Drittstøvel," Bloodhound said.

"Oh," I nodded as they finished applying the med kit on the bullet hole in my stomach. "Is that a compliment?"

"Sly what the Hell?!" Bangalore exclaimed as she walked into the room. As she did I noticed a bit of blood trickling down the side of her head.

"What?"

"I told you to stop out there."

"You did?" I thought I heard Bloodhound chuckle a little as Bangalore put a hand on her face. She did the same hand signal she had done outside the house.

"This means stop you fucking moron." My eyes went wide.

"Oh," I said, drawing out the word. "So you probably don't want another fist bump then huh?" She rolled her eyes and I laughed.

"The ring is closing. Can you walk?" Bangalore asked. I looked down at my leg, the med kit Bloodhound had used had closed up the wound. I nodded and stood up, as I put weight on my foot I stumbled forward. Bloodhound caught me and helped me stand up again. They helped me take a few steps until I could make it on my own.

"Let's go." Bangalore nodded and the three of us left the building. I knew I was moving slower than my two teammates and it was clear that both of them had slowed down to keep pace with me, making me feel worse, especially since the ring had almost caught up with us.

We were down by the river, making our way to Bridges when it finally over took us. I had never been stuck in the ring before and doing so was not fun.

"You okay there kid?" Bangalore asked as we kept running, or hobbling, through. I nodded a few times,

"Yeah," I said through clenched teeth, the constant shocking from the ring was beginning to make it harder and harder for me to walk. "I'm fine." Just as I said that I felt my injured leg give out and I tumbled to the ground. I was in the middle of standing myself back up when I felt someone grab me and hoist me up. The next thing I knew I was draped over Bangalore's shoulder, dangling as if I were a sack of potatoes. I lifted my head up. "Really?!" I exclaimed while trying to get out of her grasp, but to no avail. "You need to carry me like this?!"

"It's the simplest way. Now stop squirming." I gave up my struggle with a sigh and let myself dangle, watching the world go past me upside down as her and Bloodhound ran through the ring.

"Enjoying the view?" I asked Bloodhound who was jogging behind us.

"I was going to ask you the same thing," they replied, causing me to chuckle. I lifted my head again and looked at Bangalore, who wasn't even sweating.

"Do I weigh _anything_ to you?" She shook her head.

"Like carrying a small child." I scoffed, trying to sound offended. We had just reached inside the ring and I already felt better being outside of the ring. However Bangalore kept me over her shoulder.

"You going to put me down?" I asked. "I can walk by myself!"

"Not till we can get that leg patched up." She began to walk into one of the buildings by Bridges to look for any leftover loot.

"Oh C'mon!"

"Please," Bangalore said with a smirk, "You know you're enjoying this." My eyes went wide again. 

"Wha-" I started "No! Why, ha, wh-" I kept stuttering, causing Bangalore to laugh. I stopped myself once I realized that she was teasing me. I sighed and crossed my arms in front of my chest, which made her laugh again.

"Syringe here," Bloodhound said through the coms.

"Thank God." I muttered as Bangalore carried me to the next building. She carefully set me down on the ground and grabbed the syringe from Bloodhound before they went back outside, scanning for enemies. Once she had applied it she offered me a hand. "Thanks," I said as I was able to put weight on my foot. Bangalore nodded.

"We need to keep moving." I nodded and followed her out of the building to Bloodhound.

"All clear," they said. "The new ring is distant."

~~~~~~

By the time we had made it into the next ring, as it closed behind us, there were only two other teams remaining, and we could hear them fighting in the Swamps. We were positioned on the hill overlooking the final ring. All three of us were crouched down, watching the fight in front of us. It didn't seem like it was going to be ending anytime soon. 

"Okay," I finally said, since no one was speaking. "Here's what I'm thinking." Bangalore and Bloodhound looked at me and I could tell that there would be no chance I would get them to go along with any plan I would come up with by the glares they were giving me. "I'm going to keep watch," I finally said after a few seconds of silence. They both looked away from me and I awkwardly sighed.

Below us, the fight had decreased to just one person on each squad. They each were in opposite buildings from each other firing through the windows.

"Okay," Bangalore spoke up. "Here's what we're going to do." I looked over to her and decided to hold back the comment I wanted to make. "I'll go to the building on the right, Sly to the one on the left. We'll time our attacks and if either of them get away," she looked over to Bloodhound, who was holding a longbow, and they nodded. "Think you can handle that?" she asked me. I nodded. "Let's roll out."

I took off and carefully made my way down the hill we were sitting on. I made my way to the top floor, scaling it from the outside and waited for my cue to go in. The person in my house was on the bottom floor so I cracked the door open to look inside.

"Shit," I muttered.

"What is it?" Bloodhound asked through the coms.

"Caustic barrels." I replied. I scaled my way back to the bottom floor. "One on each floor. Although it appears that the man himself isn't standing." I could see his body in the corner, behind one of his barrels. His last living team mate was Pathfinder, and I was glad he hadn't noticed me yet and I began to formulate a plan in my head. "I'll just draw him out," I said into my coms.

"Ready whenever you are," Bloodhound replied from the cliff.

"On your go," Bangalore whispered into her coms.

"Go when you hear the music." Before either of them had a chance to respond I spoke up again. "Pathfinder, play Another One Bites the Dust." I honestly wasn't expecting my plan to work but it appeared that whatever part of Pathfinder was responsible for playing music acted separately than the part that he used during battle and the song began to play through his speakers. It was only half a second later when he spun his head around to where I had spoken from. I awkwardly waved as he aimed his gun at me. I quickly made myself invisible and took off running behind cover.

Across the way I heard Bangalore firing at the person in her house.

"One squad down," she said into the coms. Pathfinder was making his way out of the building he was in, chasing me.

"That's cool!" I yelled as I kept running, though I didn't have the energy to keep myself invisible. From above me, Bloodhound fired a shot that went directly through Pathfinder's chest. It didn't slow the bot down, or stop the music and the next thing I knew I felt a sharp pain in my back. I yelped as I was pulled backwards.

"Sorry friend!" Pathfinder exclaimed as he swung me around and tossed me back into the building he had been taking cover in, slamming the door shut with the grapple. As I hit the ground I realized I was right beside the Caustic barrel. "Oh that's not good." I muttered as I heard the barrel begin to hiss, releasing gas into the tiny room. I tried to crawl back to the door but Pathfinder was standing up against it, shooting at Bangalore, trapping me inside. I ripped my mask off of my head in attempts to help me breath better but instead I felt the gas began to sting my eyes. That was new. I heard myself screaming in anguish, although I wasn't sure how considering the amount of blood stuck in my throat.

I heard the sound of Bloodhound's Longbow again but I could no longer see anything, all I could do was feel the pain from the gas. However it wasn't much longer before I stopped feeling everything all together.


	29. Chapter 29

I woke up back in a respawn bed, with no pain from the gas.

"I died didn't I?" I asked sitting up. Bangalore and Bloodhound here both in the room with me. They both nodded. "Please tell me we won." They nodded again and I grinned. "Thank God."

"You did create quite the distraction,"Bloodhound said. I laughed a little.

"And you guys doubted me."

"Still do," Bangalore said with a smirk. I rolled my eyes and she laughed a little. "I got to go pick up Ajay from the port, you guys want to watch the game after that?" I nodded,

"Yeah, you guys can come to my place." We both looked to Bloodhound,

"I'm afraid I must be going," they said. Bangalore nodded and left the room. Bloodhound looked back at me. "Thank you for joining us today Sly." I grinned a little,

"Yeah, I mean I kind of slowed you two down a lot and then died, but yeah, no worries." Bloodhound shook their head.

"I will see you later felagi." I waved goodbye and they left the room, leaving me alone. I rolled myself out of the bed. It was time to go home.

~~~~

"Another one bites the dust, huh?" Mirage said as I walked through the door. "Wasn't actually that bad of a song."

"That's what I'm saying! Music used to be so good!"

"Was funny how you died to your own song though." I rolled my eyes. "You okay after that?" I nodded and went into my room to change out of my bloodied suit, I would have to get it fixed up for my next match, although I wasn't sure when that was going to be. I went back into the living room and plopped down on the couch beside Mirage, who was watching a recap of the game I had just played.

"Have you heard from Wraith yet?" Mirage shook his head and I sighed.

"I think we should go out tonight!" he exclaimed. "It'll keep you distracted, I know some great clubs downtown! Tonights two for one shot night!" I raised my eyebrows.

"I think I would rather take Caustic's gas again than go to a club. But, I have plans."

"You do?!" Mirage said wiggling his eyebrows. I rolled my eyes again.

"Bangalore and Ajay are coming over to watch the game." Mirage groaned. "What?!"

"That means I have to change."

"What's wrong with what you're wearing?"

~~~~

It was about an hour later when Bangalore and Ajay showed up, both of them in casual clothing.

"Thanks for filling in for me today Sly," Ajay said as they entered. I grinned,

"No worries! How's your friend?" She rolled her eyes,

"He's an idiot. But an alive one."

"Good to hear." She shook her head,

"I give him two weeks before he does something even stupider." Bangalore shook her head. 

"One week." Ajay laughed.

"Evening ladies," Mirage said walking into the room, as he did I noticed that he had even done his hair. "Can I get you guys anything to drink?"

"What do you got?" Bangalore asked, walking over to the kitchen.

"Hey, Ajay," I said since she had stayed behind. "I wanted to give you this." I reached into my pocket and pulled out the card with my winnings for the match today. Ajay raised her eyebrows, looking at the card.

"Keep em', you earned em'." I shook my head,

"No, it was your match today, and you guys would've won just as easy if not easier." Ajay grinned.

"You sure?" I nodded,

"Yeah, I want it to go to the Frontier Corps. You're doing some really great work over there, I mean you did save my life after all, and with this you can help a lot more people." Lifeline took the card from my hand and pulled me in for a hug.

"You're a good kid."

~~~~~

Bangalore and Ajay had just left when there was another knock on the door.

"You expecting anyone else?" Mirage asked.

"I was going to ask you the same." I began to walk over to the door, curious as to who would show up this late into the evening.

"Hopefully it's Wraith." Mirage said as I swung the door open. When I saw who it was my eyes went wide,

"Caustic?"

"Hello Sly. I apologize for arriving unannounced." He stood in the doorway for a second. "May I come in? I have a query I would like to discuss with you." I was still holding the door and I leant my head back to look at Mirage, who was shaking his head no.

"Sure," I told Caustic, opening the door the rest of the way. Mirage threw his hands up in the air, while giving me a crazed look. Caustic walked in and he quickly turned his hand gesture into a wave.

"Oh hey there Caus," he said casually. I looked over to Castuic, feeling a little nervous about having had invited him in.

"What can I do for you?"

"I would like to discuss today's match." I laughed a little,

"Saw you finally killed me and came to gloat?"

"Please," Caustic replied. "I do not care for... boasting. I am simply interested in how you were killed."

"As you would," I said while plopping myself back down on the couch. Mirage was keeping his distance. "Well, I mean, if you watched the game I think you saw it all. Path threw me in, barrel went off, bad times ensued." Caustic shook his head.

"What intrigues me is how quickly the poison affected you, as compared to the first time we had met in the ring."

"I just kinda assumed you brought different stuff."

"I did."

"Okay? So why the confusion?" Caustic rubbed his beard, in thought.

"The samples I used today contained much less toxins than the sample during the championship game." I tilted my head, displaying the fact that I wasn't following. "You should have died during our last match. Not today." My eyes went wide.

"Alright, your confusion is understood." I looked over to Mirage who had now moved into the living room as well. "Why is that?" I finally asked.

"That is what I would like to find out." I leant back on the couch and folded my arms.

"I'm only dying to that stuff once per day. Sorry." Caustic grinned a little.

"I'm afraid that will not be necessary. I just have a few questions."

"Shoot."

"Have you ever been in contact with Ecclaphia Marara?"

"Uh."

"Leviathan's Disease," Mirage spoke up. "Broke out two hundred years ago." I put my hands up,

"So how would I have come into contact with it then?"

"Interesting," Caustic said. I noticed he had now taken out a notebook and was writing in it. "So you have not acquired the vaccine for it then I presume?"

"Obviously not!" I thought for a second. "Am I going to get some weird space plague?!" Mirage shook his head.

"It was eradicated a good eighty years ago. Everyone has the vaccine these days." I nodded a few times, that would explain why to others the gas containing the disease was not as effective.

"I have the information I need," Caustic said standing up.

"Wait, wait, wait," I interrupted, standing up as well. "Then what is in the more deadly one?"

"Variola. Smallpox."

"Really? Smallpox?"

"You know what that is?" Mirage asked. I nodded,

"Yeah I got the vaccine when I was like, a baby." I looked back over to Caustic. "So if I get the vaccine for the other one, would that make me immune to your gas?" I asked with a grin.

"I have more than just two strains of gas, these are the only two that use disease however."

"Right," I gulped, not sure if I wanted to know what was in the other gasses.

"Thank you for you time," Caustic said. "I must be returning to my lab." And with that he walked out the door. I stood staring at the door for a few seconds before looking back over to Mirage.

"How many more space viruses have there been?" I asked.

"Yeah we should probably go get you to a hospital." Mirage replied. I grinned a little,

"Looks like we will be doing shots tonight after all!"


	30. Chapter 30

It had been nearly three weeks since my match with Bloodhound and Bangalore. In those three weeks the farthest I'd gone from my bed had been to the kitchen to grab food before returning back to my bed. It turns out that when you get dozens of different vaccines for different space diseases all at the same time, you seem to fall ill as your body tries to combat all of them at the same time.

I was lying in bed on my phone, I had been feeling better physically in the last few days however we still had yet to hear from Wraith and I was driving myself mad with worry. There was a soft knock on my door and I quickly turned my phone off and pretended to be asleep, I didn't want company. I heard Mirage crack the door open and look in.

"I know you're awake," he said, standing in the doorway. I remained silent, hoping he would believe I really was asleep. "You just posted a minute ago trying to explain to someone what a pizza pocket is." I groaned and rolled over.

"I don't get what's so hard to understand about them!" I mumbled. "You put the pizza stuff on the inside than the bread part covers it!" Mirage laughed a little and flopped himself onto my bed, laying beside me.

"I think it's time we get you out of bed." I rolled myself over again, stuffing my face into my pillow. "The people miss you!" I lifted my head up and raised my eyebrows. "It's true! They finally realize you were telling the truth about your age and you've been hiding in your room!" I sighed. He was true about people finally believing who I was. Some news reporter grabbed hold of the story that I was getting vaccines for the space diseases. She even got a hold of the doctors report of the first blood sample they took, proving that I didn't have them. So now everyone who didn't already, believed me.

"Well it's not like I disappeared altogether," I said holding up my phone. "I've been talking to 'the people'." Even in the dark I could see Mirage roll his eyes. "What do you want me to do?!"

"Take a shower," he suggested. I grabbed a hold of my blankets and raised them over my head. "I'm serious!" he laughed. "There's a solos match tomorrow."

"What about it?" I asked, still with my head under the blankets.

"It's not full yet. I'm thinking it's time for a real rematch." I stuck my head out of the blankets.

"You want to be killed by me again?"

"You didn't even kill me the last time!" Mirage protested. "C'mon it'll be fun!"

~~~~

The next morning I found myself standing beside Mirage as the dropship took off towards Kings Canyon. The reveal of our rematch had already created a lot of waves on social media, and I already knew that there were going to be a lot of people watching me today. Especially since it was my first public appearance since the article revealing that I indeed was over seven hundred years old. I glanced over at Mirage who was fiddling with his holo tec. Once the doors opened he looked over at me.

"See ya down there," he said with a wink.

"I don't think you will," I replied, turning myself invisible as I jumped off of the ship.

"Oh c'mon!" Mirage exclaimed from behind me. I turned myself visible and began to steer myself in the direction of Artillery, where I first had tried to go during my first match. This time I actually landed inside the walls and on the roof of one of the buildings. There were a few other people that landed in the area so I quickly ran through the small room at the top finding only a Longbow, and ran to the lower level, just as the big doors at the bottom were opening. I quickly crouched and aimed my Longbow at the door as it slowly opened. I took a deep breath in as I saw the person jog in. I quickly aimed and pulled the trigger as I took a breath out, just like Bloodhound had showed me. The enemy didn't even have a body shield and my bullet pierced right through their chest.

"Boom baby!" I exclaimed, probably a little louder than I should have. I looked down at the sniper in my hands. "Would it be cheating if I sniped Mirage?" I wondered out loud, as well as to the audience I was positive was watching. I went down to the person I had killed and looked at their weapons. They only had an R-99 so I happily scooped it up and swung the sniper onto my back.

I heard another gun fight breaking out outside of Artillery, through the tiny bunker so I began to jog over.

"The sooner I can find Mirage the better," I said out loud as I slid down the ramp. The big door at the bottom was still closed so I quietly slid out the side door and looked for the fight. From inside one of the buildings on the lower level of the area I could hear someone applying a medkit. I quickly turned myself invisible and hopped onto the side of the wall, crawling inside and up onto the roof. I turned myself visible, Longbow aimed directly at him. "Hey don't suppose you've seen Mirage?" The man looked up and saw me, his face going white. "I'll take that as I no." I pulled the trigger on the sniper, bullet piercing the man's head. I hopped down off of the roof and wiped the blood off of my face while looking back to the Longbow. "Maybe this thing isn't so bad after all."

I looked back down at the man I had killed and made the mistake of looking towards the screen on his wrist. I winced when I saw that he didn't have a respawn. I took a deep breath and turned away.

"He knew what he was getting into," I muttered under my breath, trying to reassure myself that what I had done was okay, even though I didn't feel that that was the case. The ring was beginning to close so I decided to leave the building. I made my way over to the zipline going over Cascades and laughed as I got on. "Hopefully no one shoots me off this time around."

Once I safely got off of the zipline I began to make my way towards Bunker, feeling more eager to find Mirage. However as I walked it appeared that no one had even been through this area yet so I decided to alter my route and run through a few of the buildings. It proved to be worth it as I was able to locate a blue body shield as well as an extended mag for my R-99 as well as a barrel stabilizer. Although it did take me nearly three minutes trying to get it properly attached to the weapon.

"This is why I like playing with other people," I said out loud as I struggled to put on the attachment. "They could do this for me." I fiddled with the attachment for another minute before it finally clicked into place. "God that was a waste of time," I said to myself once it was on. I looked up, trying to find a camera, even though I knew I wouldn't be able to. I looked back down at the screen on my wrist and saw that the match was already down to twenty people and that I was sitting right on the edge of the ring, which was going to be closing in half a minute. "Yeah probably should've put on the attachment once I was in the ring huh?" I shook my head as I began to run. "Classic Sly."

By the time I made it into the next ring I was out of breath from both running and getting stuck inside of it. I put my hands on my knees, trying to catch my breath, although I knew I didn't have long, the next ring was closing in a few minutes and this time I wanted to stay ahead of it. I quickly pulled out a syringe and used it on myself to get rid of the sting caused by the ring. Once it had finished I looked down at my screen.

Ten people left.

The next ring was closing around Skulltown, this time since I had made it in before the ring fully closed I took the chance to climb on top of one of the buildings at the edge of the town. I still had the Longbow on me so I pulled it out and began to scan the area. There were only four people left. I knew one of them had to be Mirage. There was shooting to my left, so I aimed the gun that direction and zoomed in on the scope I had found. I could see two people fighting it out over the sand dunes between the edges of Skulltown. Neither of them Mirage. The one guy seemed to be running circles around the second.

"That dude is moving," I mumbled to myself. He finished taking down the person he had been fighting and I took the opportunity to line up a shot, thinking he was going to stand still for a second and loot. I took a deep breath and pulled the trigger.

I missed.

The man's head snapped up, looking in my direction. As he did I could see he was wearing goggles and a mask, and was running toward me. I fired a second shot however the man had only begun to run faster. As he ran I saw him reach into his pocket and he threw something down in front of him.

"What the Hell?" I wondered out loud. Whatever he had dropped it expanded as it hit the ground and once he stepped on it, it launched him up. "Jesus!" I exclaimed as I made a reach for my R-99. The man laughed as he flew over top of me, firing two Peacekeeper shots into me before landing on the other side of the building. The first shot went through my shields and the second through my stomach. I stumbled backwards, the bullets knocking me off of the roof.

I heard a loud crunch as I hit the ground. I wasn't sure what bone it was though. The man who had shot me came running around the corner, laughing. As he came around the corner I couldn't help but notice that he had robotic legs.

"Woah! Mira! Did you see that?! That was epic!" he exclaimed, while getting his Peacekeeper out again. I was clutching my stomach, unable to line up a shot on the man. He was about to finish me off when someone else began to yell.

"Hey!" It was Mirage. "She's mine!" I had a feeling that behind the man's mask, the grin was just as wild as the one that was painted on it. He spun back around to face me.

"Espere un momento!" he said to me. He reached into the pocket of his shorts and I watched as he pulled out something that resembled a needle. He injected it into his leg and took off running towards where Mirage had yelled from while pulling a Devotion.

I was breathing heavy and bleeding out fast. I knew I had a medkit in my backpack but I wasn't sure if I was going to have enough time to get it off before this guy came back, or if it would actually fix everything that was wrong with me. It was a struggle to even swung my backpack off of my back and in front of me so by the time I had the med kit out the fight was already over. I looked up and saw the man with the robotic legs running back over to me. I groaned as I threw the med kit down to pull out my R-99.

"Lo siento for the delay there amiga!" he exclaimed as he jogged up to me. When he saw my R-99 he sped up and kicked my arm, knocking the gun out of my hand with an unsatisfying crunch. I cried out in pain as I felt the bone shatter. "Alright!" the man exclaimed. "Let's hurry this up!" He ran back towards the item on the ground that boosted him up, leaving me on the ground, now grasping my arm. As he ran towards it he pulled something out of his pocket before jumping up off of the booster, while letting out a battle cry.

"Oh no," I muttered when I saw him pull the pin on it. I tried to crawl away but he had already tossed the grenade, mid flip, landing it right in front of me. The last thing I saw before it blew was the man missing his landing and landing on his face.


	31. Chapter 31

I sprung up in my bed, instantly reaching towards my face to make sure it was all there.

"Son of a bitch!" I exclaimed once I fully remembered what happened.

"He got ya to hey?" I looked over and saw that I was in a room with Mirage, who was also in a respawn bed. I groaned and put my head back on my pillow.

"We're never going to kill each other are we?" Mirage snickered a little.

"One day," he said with a grin.

"Ugh," I rolled myself out of bed till I was sitting on the side of it, legs dangling off. "Can we just go home?" Mirage was about to answer when down the hallway we could hear someone yelling.

"Looks like we aren't the only one's upset about that round," Mirage mumbled as he sat up in his bed. The door to our room was a crack open and from outside we could hear someone running down the hallway, away from the yelling. I saw a glimpse of the person ran past our room and a few seconds later they came back, ran inside, and slammed the door shut. Mirage and I both looked at the man that had run in.

"Oh hey there chicos. Sorry about what happened in there," the man with the metal legs turned around and cracked the door open to look down the hallway. He was still wearing what he had on in the arena except his goggles were around his head, relieving a mess of black and green hair, and the mask off of his mouth.

"Octavio!" a woman yelled. The man stuck his head back in our room slammed the door shut again and looked at us.

"Do you mind if I hide in here?"

"Uh," I started, unsure of what to say. It seemed that whatever I was going to say didn't matter and the man dove forward onto the ground and under my bed. The door to the room swung open, "Ajay?"

"Where is he?" she demanded, her face red. Both Mirage and I pointed under my bed. Ajay marched into the room and crouched down in front of my bed. I heard the person underneath try to sit up to escape quickly but he simply smacked his head against the metal bed frame. Ajay mumbled a curse word and before I knew what was happening she had grabbed the man by one of his metal legs and dragged him out of underneath my bed.

"Oh Ajay!" he exclaimed once she had let go of his leg, leaving him lying on the floor. "Hola! Didn't see you there." Ajay scowled and he stood up off of the floor.

"What the Hell were you thinking?!" Ajay yelled, not seeming to care that Mirage and I were in the room. "Idiota! You could've gotten yourself killed!" Mirage and I exchanged glances.

"Psh," the man started. "I wasn't in any real danger."

"You didn't have a respawn!"

"Yeah but I mean," he looked back at Mirage and I. "These two were my hardest competition and you've seen them in fight."

"Hey!" Mirage and I both exclaimed.

"Doesn't matter!" Ajay went on, ignoring us. "You could have died!" The man grinned.

"Ah, you were worried about me chica?" I could practically see the steam from Ajay's ears. Instead of yelling more I saw her take a deep breath. 

"More worried about those legs I gave ya." The man looked down at his legs. "I stuck my neck out for you, you could've at least waited a little longer before doing something this stupid!" The man grinned again.

"They work great though, aye? Did you see how fast I was moving?!" Ajay shook her head. "I wanted to do a match by myself to prove myself, then get a team and a respawn to do some more so I can pay you back!"

"I would've taken a thank you."

"Yeah but I was bored." Ajay rolled her eyes. "You want to join me next time amiga?" She shook her head.

"Only an idiot would willingly join your team." The man spun around to look at Mirage and I and gestured towards the two of us.

"Why do you think I hid in this room?" the man said with a grin on his face. I opened my mouth to protest but I stopped myself.

"You know, that's fair," I said with a nod.

"No it's not!" Mirage exclaimed. I shrugged,

"Could be fun though." Ajay raised her eyebrows.

"The three of you on a team?" she shook her head. "There's no way that would end well."

"Also fair," I commented.

"So?" the man asked. "You in?" 

"Not a chance in Hell," Mirage commented. "It's pre-pre-pra- insane!" Everyone looked at me.

"I mean I kind of need to redeem myself after that last one. So sure, why not." Mirage shook his head, disappointed in me, I simply looked at him and raised my eyebrows. He let out a long sigh,

"Fine," he said, drawing out the word. 

"Yes!" the man exclaimed while fist pumping the air.

"I'm Sly the way," I said to the man while sticking out a hand.

"Ha I guess we kind of skipped that part didn't we?" He eagerly shook my hand. "Octavio Silva. But my fans call me Octane." Behind him Ajay was rolling her eyes.

"When are you wanting to do the squad match?" I asked.

"There's one tomorrow," Octane said casually. My eyes widened.

"You don't rest do you?" He grinned again.

"You do?" I shook my head and got out of bed.

"We'll see you tomorrow then."

~~~~~

"You actually like that guy?!" Mirage exclaimed as we were walking up to his house.

"What? He's funny."

"He's insane is what he is." I shook my head and went to go open the door, when I noticed it was a crack open. I put my hand out to stop Mirage and motioned towards it. He began to pull his gun out. I turned myself invisible and opened the door a little further so I could creep in.

"Hey Sly," a quiet voice from the couch. I spun my head towards the living room and saw a figure sitting there. I made myself visible.

"Wraith," I said, matching her tone of voice. I looked back to the door. "All good Mirage." I saw Mirage put his gun away and he walked inside. He saw Wraith and looked back at me.

"Quite the match today," Wraith said as we walked over to the living room, the TV was on playing the match, just on mute.

"You saw that?" I asked with a wince. Wraith grinned a little. I looked over to Mirage who was keeping quiet, surprisingly. I looked back to Wraith who was fiddling with the gloves on her hands.

"I'm sorry," she finally said after a few seconds of silence. I bit my lip, unsure of what to say. "I just," she paused. "Just needed to think." I nodded a little,

"It's okay." I said. "I get it." She shook her head.

"I realized you no doubt were thinking the same thing as me. I shouldn't have disappeared." Now I shook my head.

"No, it's kinda my fault." She tilted her head. "I mean, I can't imagine, you were looking so long for clues and..." I trailed off. "I'm sorry," I finally said.

"Me to." It fell silent again.

"You going to stay for a bit?" I finally asked. Wraith nodded,

"I think I might know how to get more answers."

"Let me guess, we have to go into the arena?" She nodded again.

"There's a squad match tomorrow. I figured the three of us could..." she trailed off when she saw me faking a grin.

"So about that," I muttered. "We may have agreed to join the uh," I looked back at the TV and saw a clip of Octane killing me playing. "That guy." Wraith raised her eyebrows. "I'm pretty sure there's a solo match the day after though!" I exclaimed, trying to keep positive. Wraith shook her head,

"It's a lot harder breaking into those terminals when alone with no one to cover you," she said. "And, besides, you should be there." I tilted my head. "My answers are yours as well." I grinned a little and it fell silent once again.

"Well I'm hungry!" Mirage finally said. "I'm thinking we could order in?"

~~~~

The three of us were sitting around the table eating a pizza.

"So," Mirage started. "If I fold my pizza like this," he folded his pizza in half, making a pizza sandwich. "Did I just create a pizza pocket?"

No!" I exclaimed, mouth still full. I quickly swallowed my bite. "I mean kind of. But like, the crust part should go all the way around." I grabbed another piece of pizza from the box and began folding it, trying to make it in the right shape of a pizza pocket but all of the topping began falling off and I quickly had a mess on my hands. Mirage started laughing as I gave up and let the pizza fall back onto my plate. "And besides, they come frozen, you have to heat them up in the microwave."

"Sounds awful." Mirage muttered. I shrugged.

"Yeah you really only ate them if you were ten or having a mental crisis." Mirage laughed again and I looked over to Wraith, who looked deep in thought.

"A pizza pocket?" she said quietly. I nodded eagerly,

"They even came in different flavours! You know different fillings!" Mirage was shaking his head. "I was a big fan of the three cheese. You would bite into one of those and man you would just this huge string of cheese-"

"Did they look like this?" Wraith interrupted. She slid over a piece of paper which had a quick sketch on a pizza pocket on it.

"They totally did!" I exclaimed. "How do you-" I cut myself of when I realized what I was implying. Wraith was biting the end of the pencil she had in her hands.

"I don't know," she whispered. Mirage looked between the two of us as it fell silent again.

"Man," he finally said. "Could you imagine if the first memory you got back was about a pizza pocket?!" he exclaimed, trying to crack a joke. Wraith shook her head.

"I actually think I remembered Spider-Man. At least, I felt like I had seen the suit before." I nodded,

"Yeah he was pretty big around our time. Good chance you saw a few movies." My eyes went wide. "Oh my God!" I exclaimed.

"What?!" Mirage and Wraith shouted.

"I just realized that I was frozen before the newest Spider-Man movie!"

"Really?" Mirage asked, seeming annoyed.

"Really! It was going to come out the summer after I disappeared!" I shook my head. "Do you think Pathfinder has it?"


	32. Chapter 32

The next morning Mirage and I made our way back to the arena to find Octavio running laps around the dropship, waiting for the doors to open. When he saw us he jogged over.

"Amigos! Good morning!" his mask was around his neck and I could see him grinning, ear to ear.

"You look well rested," Mirage commented. The man grinned even wider.

"Didn't sleep!" he exclaimed as he was bouncing on the spot.

"You sure you're good enough to go back in there?" I asked, feeling a little nervous about the mental wellbeing of this guy. He nodded eagerly.

"Of course! And this time I have a respawn so we have nothing to lose!"

"Only my sanity," Mirage mumbled, causing me to laugh.

"Have you seen the size of those needles though chica?" he asked me. I shuddered,

"I try not to think about it."

"It's so cool!" he went on, not seeming to have heard me.

"Yeah, that's what I meant." Octane flashed me another grin,

"Well what are we waiting for?!"

~~~~

"So where should we land?" Octane asked as we loaded onto the drop ship. "Skull Town? Hot zone? Supply ship?"

"Woah, woah, woah," I started. "You've played one match. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

"Hang on there kid," Mirage went on. "Let's go hot zone." I gave him a crazed look as Octane happily took off towards the edge of the ship. "What?" he asked. "It'll be funny." I shook my head. The hot zone was around Bridges and as we were dropping I could see at least three other teams, if not more, heading towards the same place.

"So much for a chill match," I muttered under my breath as my feet hit the ground. The three of us had all landed at the same building and ran inside to look for weapons. I grabbed a body shield off of the floor.

"Sly!" Mirage exclaimed. "Catch!" I spun around and he had already tossed an R-301 at me. I caught it and kept running into the next room over to see Octane without a gun but an enemy under his foot.

"Jesus!" I exclaimed as I watched him rapidly stomp the person to death. He looked up at me and gave me the rock on sign with his hands before grabbing a Wingman off of the ground and taking off out the door running. "Did you see that?" I asked Mirage as he had caught up with me. He was about to answer when we heard Octane through the coms.

"Taking fire!" he yelled. Mirage and I ran outside and as I did I noticed that he was already all the way across the bridge.

"How the Hell?" I exclaimed, taking off sprinting. As I stepped on the bridge I saw another enemy running across. Without hesitating I had fired a few shots into them, knocking them to the ground.

"Not bad!" Mirage exclaimed as he ran past me, leaving me to finish off the downed player. "Octane where are you?" Mirage yelled into the coms as he neared the buildings where we had last seen him.

"Up here!" Mirage and I looked up to the structure on the top of the hill.

"But you were just-" I cut myself off when I looked down again I saw two more enemies right in front of me.

"Shit!" I dove behind one of the vehicles that was parked on the bridge. I stuck my head out to fire a few shots at the attackers. As I did I noticed that Octane was also fighting two more enemies at the top. Mirage was crouched beside me and he sent a decoy running out of cover. When the two people attacking us shot the decoy we both ran out of cover and knocked them down while they were distracted.

I looked back up to where Octane was now that we were closer and saw one of the attackers dead on the ground at the bottom of the zip line

"There's still one more!" Octane cried from the top level. Mirage was already halfway up the zip line to the top when I heard Octane drop one of his jump pads.

"That can't be a good sign," I mumbled, quiet enough that he wouldn't hear me through the coms. I looked back up and saw him flying through the air, laughing. I watched as he spun around a sniper rifle and fire a shot at whoever was shooting at him from the ledge. It appeared he had hit his shot and the body of the person fell forward off of the ledge, landing right at my feet. I closed my eyes as the blood splattered all over me while Octane laughed again. I looked over and saw him hit the ground. He had landed on his metal legs and it looked as if he had tried to do a fancy roll but simply fell onto his face and slid across the dirt on it. "Oh my God!" I exclaimed once he slid to a stop. "Are you okay?!" While still on his face Octane gave me a thumbs up,

"That was awesome!" I rolled my eyes as I helped him sit up. He was covered in blood and dirt but it didn't appear that anything was that badly injured. I handed him a syringe. "That everyone?" he asked as he applied it.

"Think so," Mirage said walking up to us, having came back down from the ledge now carrying a Devotion. I nodded and was about to say something when a bullet flew right past my face.

"You sure about that?" I muttered as I reloaded the R-301. I peeked around the corner. "There's three of them," I said to my team. "Two with snipers."

"Probably best if we hold our spot here," Mirage said. I nodded and looked over to Octane. Except he wasn't there anymore.

"Octane?!" I yelled as I saw him running across the bridge. 

"Don't worry!" he exclaimed as he kept running, injecting some sort of needle into his upper leg. "They can't catch me!" However as he said this one of the people fired a shot that pierced right through his shields and into his stomach. I put a hand on my head.

"This isn't what I was like was I?" I asked looking at Mirage. He shrugged. I rolled my eyes, even though he couldn't see and turned myself invisible. I quickly ran to where the two people were taking cover with their snipers and emptied on of my mags into the first ones head. I was in the middle of reloading when the second spun around with a Havoc. My eyes widened when I realized they had a turbocharger on it and I didn't have time to go invisible again before it started firing.

I fell to the ground just as the door swung open. I was expecting to see Mirage or Octane but instead I saw a completely different team. I cursed and began to crawl out of the line of fire while those two squads fought. I knew I wouldn't be able to make it out the door so I quickly made my way into one of the corners and collapsed behind one of the boxes.

I could hear Mirage and Octane in the coms so I quickly reached over to the screen on my wrist and muted them so that the enemy wouldn't find me. Once one of the teams inside the house was down the door swung open again, this time with my team and they quickly finished off the remaining two players.

"Sly?" Mirage asked.

"Over here," I mumbled, trying to crawl out from behind cover.

"Ha, nice hiding spot Amigo," Octane said as he walked up to me. I faked a laugh.

"Anyone got a medkit? Maybe some shield cells?" Mirage nodded and began to apply the medkit. 

"That should be all of them," he said as he gave me a hand to stand up. I grabbed his hand when all of a sudden I heard the sound of another sniper going off. We didn't have time to react as the bullet pierced through Mirage's head, killing him instantly. I let out a small scream and looked over to Octane who look just as shocked as me.

"I have no ammo," he said as he checked his gun. I looked down at what I had.

"Same here."

"I say we bolt." I nodded eagerly and he took off towards the back door. By the time I made it to the door he was already inside the caves.

"How do you run so fast?!" I exclaimed as another Longbow shot hit the ground beside me as I ran, causing me to dive behind another tiny building. I heard Octane chuckle in the coms. "I don't think I can make it," I said peaking around the side of my building. I quickly stuck my head back in as another bullet flew past.

"Fine," I heard Octane say. "I'll come get you." Before I had the chance to say anything I saw him running full speed around the corner again. The people firing at us were unable to hit a shot on him. He ran up to me and turned around. "Hop on!" he said, guestering to his back.

"You can't be serious."

"You want to stay here chica?" I sighed and hopped up on Octane's back. "Here we go!" he exclaimed as he took off running again, this time towards the cliff that lead down to the river. As he did he reached into his pocket and pulled out yet another one of the jump pads and threw it out in front of us.

"Bad idea!" I yelled as he ran at it full speed, once he hit it we were both launched into the air. I frantically wrapped my arms around his shoulders to keep myself from falling off and I buried my head into the back of his shoulder, not wanting to look, causing Octane to laugh. I felt us hit the ground and this time he had managed to stick his landing. He didn't even slow down and reached into his pocket and pulled out another needle that he stuck in his leg. As he did I realized that he was using whatever fluid he was injecting into himself was letting him run faster. 

The team that had been firing at us didn't ease up as we ran through the river however Octane began running in zig-zags and not a single one of the shots hit us. Once we had rounded the corner I expected Octane to slow down but clearly I was wrong and he kept running back up the hill and towards Repulser.

He carried me into one of the buildings where we found ourselves face to face with another team, looting the bodies of a team they had killed. They all looked at us and for a second no one reacted. I raised a hand up off of Octane's shoulder and waved.


	33. Chapter 33

Octane injected himself with another needle and took off out the door just as the other team started firing. I felt a bullet go through my shoulder and I cried out in pain. Octane however still didn't slow down.

"This is fun!" he yelled to me as we ran towards Hydro Dam.

"Sure!" I exclaimed, still being carried piggyback style. "That's exactly how I would describe this scenario!" Octane laughed again as we ran across the bridge that connected Repulser to Hydro Dam. "What even is that stuff?" I asked once he pulled out another one of his needles.

"Stim!" he exclaimed. I squinted my eyes.

"Are those drugs?" He nodded and jabbed another one into himself. "Is that even good for you?!"

"Depends who you ask," he replied while looking back with a smirk. I shook my head as he ran into some of the buildings. "Here," he said grabbing some ammo, "Hold this for me." I rolled my eyes and grabbed the boxes of ammo he threw at me while still running.

"You going to put me down?" We were now at the bottom of Hydro Dam where there were a few supply crates.

"Oh, right, lo siento" he let go of my legs and I hopped off.

"Thanks." I opened up one of the supply bins and found a syringe that I began applying it while leaning up against the crate. Once my shoulder was fixed I opened the other three and began to sort through the items, reloading my guns, and putting grenades into my pockets.

"You done yet amigo?" Octane asked, pacing back and forth.

"Oh am I moving to slow for you?" he nodded. "Just let me put on this stock." I didn't mean to mess up trying to put the attachment on my gun but it wasn't long before I dropped it on the ground. I picked it back up and tried to reattach it but my hand slipped and it fell to the ground once again.

"Dios mío!" I snickered as Octane ran up to me, grabbed the attachment off the ground and then the gun from my hands. My snicker turned into a laugh when he was having just as much trouble with the attachment as I had. "Joder!" he exclaimed while throwing the stock to the ground. I looked at him and raised my eyebrows. "You don't need that," he mumbled while starting to walk away. I let out another laugh as I began to follow.

~~~~

The ring was closing in around Wetlands and Relay and only five teams were left. Octane and I were creeping up around the right side of Wetlands as a fight was breaking out.

"Want to jump in there?" Octane asked looking over at me.

"I mean there's only two of us and that's two teams of three-" but before I could finish my sentence Octane was already on the zip line over towards the fight. "Why would you even ask then?!" I exclaimed as I had to run to follow him. I sighed as I watched him use some more stim when he hopped off the zip line and shook my head. "If you die I'm not coming to save you," I said into the coms as I heard him begin to fire at the two squads that were fighting.

"Attention," the announcer said a few seconds later. "There is a new kill leader." I looked down at my wrist to see who it was.

"Hey!" I exclaimed when I saw that it was my team mate. "Not bad!" There was no response. "Octane?" I looked back down at my screen and saw that he was still alive so I picked up the pace and ran into the building he had gone into, the shooting had stopped so I had assumed that he had killed all of the enemies. Then I was greeted with an entire team, all focusing on Octane who was injured. When he saw me in the doorway I could see him grin under his mask as he began to reach into his pocket.

"Run Sly!" he yelled to me. I tilted my head but when I saw him pull the pin on the grenade in his hand I quickly took off, slamming the door behind me so that the three people inside couldn't get out.

"What kind of idea was that?!" I exclaimed as the grenade blew. I quickly swung the door open again.

"Oh my god," I muttered under my breath as I looked at the scene in front of me. "I'm going to be sick." I pulled my mask off of my head and turned around, away from the massacre in front of me.

"Kill leader eliminated," the announcer said as I caught my breath, trying to get the image of that room out of my head. Not only had the grenade torn apart the enemy squad, it had also torn apart the first team that died as well as my team mate. I looked down at the screen on my wrist as saw that there were two more teams remaining. I sighed and began to walk into the next circle. I felt myself getting more and more nervous since I was the only one left alive against two different teams, both of which were likely to have more than one player left.

"What to do, what to do," I mumbled under my breath as I walked. I had a feeling that there was an audience watching me through the cameras so I decided to keep speaking my thought process out loud. "There's no way I'll win a three v one." I thought again for another second. "I could do what that one team did to us and attack immediately after they finish one squad. Be like the third party." I nodded a few times. "Yeah that's not bad," I sighed again. "I should probably stop talking to myself."

I made my way into one of the buildings by Relay and closed the door quietly behind me. I attach myself to the roof to get up the stairs. Once I saw that the room was empty I let myself drop to the ground and sat down on the floor, crossed leg, to save my energy. I leant up against one wall, gazing out the window.

"I'd kill for a Kit-Kat right about now." I paused for a second. "Why don't they have snacks in this thing? You know?" I kept talking out loud. "I mean, I know they give us water bottles but what if they started leaving snacks around buildings like they do with the other loot." I trailed off. "Someone could totally lure me into a trap with a chocolate bar. They could leave one where I could see it and I'd just trot on in and boom! Dead." I tried looking around to see if I could actually see one of the cameras. I thought I saw what could be one so I looked at it and held a finger up, "No one tell Caustic that." I was about to crack another joke when I heard the door at the bottom of the stairs swing open.

I quickly scrambled to my feet and up the side of the wall, crouching in the corner. A single person ran into the room, frantic. When I looked at their wrist I could tell why, they didn't have a respawn. When they saw the room was empty, at least, ground level, they took a sniping position at the window, trying to calm down. My eyes went wide as I realized that this guy still had no idea I was right above him. I was beginning to think that it might just be easiest if I were to take him out myself but I looked back at the persons lack of respawn. I had just decided to wait to see if their team took out the other one when my thoughts were interrupted by a bullet flying through the window and into the person's skull. I bit my tongue to stop myself from reacting and looked back down on my screen. It said there were only two teams left.

"So much for my plan," I muttered as I crawled down off of the wall. I crouched down in front of the body so that I was out of the window and began to see what loot the person had. I grabbed some extra ammo when at the bottom of the building I heard footsteps.

"Someone travelled through here recently," a familiar voice said. I cursed under my breath and looked around me for an idea.

"Other than the person you already killed?" a second voice said. I was pretty sure it was Bangalore. I heard the door creek open and I made another leap onto the wall. I crawled up as close as I could to the roof before turning myself invisible.

Bloodhound and Bangalore walked up the stairs and I began to wonder if it was just the two of them. Bloodhound knelt down beside the body and looked around the empty room. I told myself that they wouldn't be able to see me since I was invisible but yet I still doubted myself. Bloodhound glanced around the room again before looking up directly at me and pausing. I held my breath as they tilted their head, looking at the roof. I even looked down at myself to make sure I was still invisible. After a second I saw the hunter's head straighten out.

"Hello Sly," they said calmly. I cursed and turned myself visible. I waved sheepishly.

"Hi there. How's, uh, how's it going?" The three of us all made a reach our weapons at the same time, Bangalore however was the fastest and it wasn't a second later that a blast from a Mozambique knocked me off of the roof and onto the floor, causing me to drop my guns. "Are you really-?" I started as a rolled myself over, as she shot me with the second bullet in the tiny shotgun. "Really using a mozambique?" I barely managed to get the last word out before the third and final bullet in the magazine went into my skull.


	34. Chapter 34

"I died to a Mozambique," I muttered to Mirage after we had woken up.

"Ha!" he exclaimed. "And where was this guy?" he asked while motioning to Octane, who still hadn't woken up yet.

"Dead already. Took out an entire squad with a 'nade finishing himself off for them." Mirage laughed and we both looked over to Octane.

"He looks almost, peaceful, sleeping," Mirage commented, I nodded, agreeing. "Is it bad if I say I would rather him stay like this?" I glared at him and he laughed. "Kidding! Kind of." I was about to say something more when we heard Octane begin to stir.

"Woah!" he exclaimed a second later once he was fully conscious. "That was a rush!" he sprung up in his bed, not seeming to be freaking out as much as I did my first time being respawned. He tried to jump out of his bed but looked down and saw that upon reviving him someone had unattached his metal legs. "Uh, amigos? What happened to my legs?"

"You don't have any," Mirage commented. "You blew them off." Octane rolled his eyes dramatically,

"I know _that,_ but where are my new ones?!"

"You actually blew those off as well," I explained. Octane's eyes went wide. "But they're right there," I said pointing to the corner of the room. As we all looked at them I noticed that they had sustained a bit of damage from the explosion.

"Ajay is going to be so mad at me," he said under his breath as he looked at the broken pieces. "If she sees this-!" 

"Hang on!" Mirage interrupted. "Don't get your knackers in a knot." I looked over at him, bewildered at the expression he had used

"What the hell did you just say?"

"I might be able to help you out," he went on, ignoring me.

"Really?" Octane asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah, lots of people forget that I'm an engineer."

"You are?!" Octane and I exclaimed at the same time. Mirage looked over to me,

"Okay him not knowing I get, but you've been _living_ with me!" I shrugged and he shook his head. "I'll take them back to my place," he said to Octane. "See what I can do."

"I can't go anywhere without my legs."

"There's actually this thing called a wheelchair." Octane shook his head again.

"If Ajay sees me without them..." he trailed off, seeming genuinely afraid of Lifeline's wrath. Mirage thought for a second.

"You can come hang out then." Octane flashed a grin but it faltered a second later.

"How are we supposed to get passed all of the reporters though? Without my legs?" Now I felt myself grin,

"I have an idea." I quickly explained.

"You can't be serious," Octane said as I turned around to let him hop onto my back so I could carry him the same way he had done to me in the arena.

"You want to stay here chico?"

~~~~~

"Nice place you got here," Octane said as we wheeled him into the house. "Reminds me of home."

"Same here," I said as I pushed him into the living room. Octane looked back at me,

"You had a house like this? Back in... whenever?" I grinned a little,

"No, jeez a house like this would cost a lot more than I had. I was actually living in a twelve by twelve foot concrete room at the time of my disappearance."

"I thought you said you guys weren't that overpopulated yet," Mirage commented. I laughed a little,

"No, I was just at university. It was a thing. Cost as much as a house like this to." They both looked at me like I was insane. "I'm going to grab a drink. You guys want any?" Mirage shook his head and held up one of Octane's metal legs.

"I'm going to get to work," he said. I nodded.

"Be careful with those!" Octane yelled as Mirage walked out of the room and to the garage. He looked over at me. "Want to wheel me over there? Not sure I trust him."

"Not really," I muttered. "Besides, he'll be fine. You'll be running again in no time." Octane huffed and crawled himself onto the couch. I grabbed two drinks from the fridge and sat down beside him, handing him one. "Want to watch the match?" I asked grabbing the remote for the T.V. Octane shook his head,

"Boring," he muttered.

"What would you like to do then?" I saw him shrug.

"What did you do for fun, back before?" I thought for a second.

"Oh you know, lots of running. Walking," I said jokingly. Octane glared at me and I laughed. "I'll be honest I never went outside. Lot's of video games."

"You had video games?! That long ago?!" I grinned,

"You want to play some? Pathfinder came and set up an old console for me when I was sick."

~~~~~

"No, no, you have a healing spell!" I yelled at Octane as his characters health began to plummet as he fought a dragon.

"How do I do that again?!"

"Hit the up arrow to get it in your hand then pull the left trigger!"

"Which one's the trigger-!" he was in the middle of yelling when the dragon delivered the final blow. "Joder!" Octane exclaimed as his character died, throwing the controller onto the ground.

"Can you just let me kill the-"

"No! I played through the entirety of UltraZone 6 in hardcore mode in three hours! I think I can handle a game from 2010-"

"What is going on here?!" Wraith said as she came into the house.

"We're playing _Skyrim_!" I said as Octane's character loaded back in. "Okay, this time try using the shout before-"

"Yeah, yeah," Octane shoved a hand in my face, ignoring me as he leapt into the fight. 

"Where's Mirage?" Wraith cut in again.

"Right bumper!" I yelled. "Right!"

"Guys!" Wraith spoke up. Octane and I both spun around. "Mirage?" 

"Oh, he's in the garage fixing my legs." I saw Wraith squint her eyes. "I'm Octavio by the way." We both spun back around to face the T.V. "How do I do a power attack again?" It wasn't long before Octane died to the dragon again.

"Can I try?" Wraith asked from behind the couch. I didn't even realize she was still watching us play.

"You can try amiga but these old folk games are loco," he said as he handed the control to Wraith. She looked it over in her hands.

"Okay, so the two sticks will let you move and the things on the back," I did the motion with my hands, "Will be your attacks." Wraith nodded and I told her the button to hit go. She died nearly as fast as Octane. Octane reached over to Wraith to grab the control back but she shook her head,

"One more try."

~~~~

It was a painful hour later that Wraith and Octane managed to kill the dragon. Both Octane and I were cheering while Wraith calmly set the controller down with a grin.

"So?" Octane said, "Does that mean we won?!" I laughed.

"Dude that was literally the _first_ dragon you are supposed to kill."

"You mean there's more dragons?" Octane said with a groan.

"Your main goal of the game is to kill the big bad dragon."

"And that wasn't him?!"

"That was fun," Wraith said as Octane fell silent in protest. I nodded,

"Yeah you weren't so bad." I said with another grin on my face.

"Almost like I had played before," she went on. I shrugged,

"I mean maybe, but like, then I think you would've been a little bit better than," I said with a wink.

"Sounds like you guys are having fun," Mirage said as he walked into the room. I looked over and saw him carrying one of Octane's legs and was covered in oil and grease. He walked up and sat on the couch. "Here," he handed Octane the leg. "Try this on for me will ya?" Octane grinned and happily took the leg from Mirage. Once it was on he stood up and began to hop around.

"Feels good amigo!"

"Alright!" Mirage said with a grin, seeming proud of his work. "Give it back and then I'll be done right away so you can go home and grab some sleep." Octane shook his head and plopped back down on the couch.

"I don't sleep," he laughed as he began to unhook his leg again. "Besides, doesn't being dead for a few minutes count?" The three of us all shook our heads. Mirage took the leg from Octane and he began to rub where it had been attached.

"Does it get sore?" Mirage asked, noticing this. Octane shrugged,

"I mean sometimes it hurts where the legs used to be, but está bien." Mirage grinned again,

"I might be able to help there to," he said with a wink. My eyes went wide. "I had a friend back home missing an arm." Mirage went on causing me to sigh, which then turned into a yawn.

"Well you guys have fun," I said standing up off of the couch. "I am going to bed."

"Buenas noches!" Octane said as I walked off. "And thanks for the match today!"


	35. Chapter 35

I was eating a bowl of cereal the next morning when someone came trotting into the kitchen that I was not expecting.

"Octane?"

"Buenos días!" he exclaimed with a wave. I squinted my eyes as I looked back from where he came from. When I spun around again to look at him he was already out the front door. I looked back and now saw Mirage coming out of his room, putting on a robe. My eyes went wide as I looked at him than back to where Octane had been.

"Uh, Mirage?"

"Yeah?" he replied while pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"Did you..." I slowly put the pieces together. "And.. Octane..." I trailed off.

"What about it?" He took a sip of coffee. My mouth fell open.

"Mirage!" I yelled

"What?!"

"How?!"

"Well, you see when two people-"

"You know what I mean!"

"Oh, well that's simple then. I offered to massage his legs to help with the phantom pain, he accepted, and then since my hands were already-"

"Ahh!" I screamed while raising my hands to my ears. "That's enough information!" When he stopped talking I lowered my hands and smacked him "I can't believe you!"

"Why?"

"He's our team mate!"

"He _was_ our team mate." Mirage corrected.

"Still!" I ran a hand through my hair. "He's still going to be around you know!? Like in our group of friends, all of who are all still on teams with each other! Changing teams to!"

"So?" he was grinning ear to ear. "You think this is the first person in our group I've slept with? It's not like it's been awkward," My mouth fell open even wider.

"What!?" I exclaimed. "Who?!"

"I think the better question to ask would be who _hasn't_ he slept with," Wraith commented walking into the room.

"Mirage!" I yelled again.

  
"What? You know how it is after a round, people got a lot of pent up adrenaline and emotion which combines to make one very-"

"We really don't need to discuss this further." I interrupted again.

"And besides," he said looking back at Wraith. "One day I'll finish checking off everyone on that list," he said with a wink.

"In your dreams," she commented.

"I can start somewhere else then," he said, unfazed. He then thought for a second as if he had to remember who he had or hadn't slept with. "You know, I bet Bloodhound would be very into-"

"That's enough!" I yelled before he went any further. Mirage laughed at me,

"Don't you ever wonder though about-"

"No! I don't!" Mirage snickered again. I looked back down at my bowl of cereal, unsure if I actually wanted any more. "Can we change the topic please?"

"Gladly," Wraith said. "There's another squad match coming up in a few days. I have a few ideas on where we can start looking."

"That's awesome!" I exclaimed. "What are you thinking?"

"Well the terminals in some of the buildings contain different IMC files," she explained. "The information seems to be very unorganized, as if they knew they were leaving and didn't want anyone snooping around."

"Why wouldn't they just erase the files?" I asked.

"The left in a hurry," Mirage piped in. "Once the war ended they had to get out of here before anything happened. I've seen the files while helping Wraith, they tried to erase them but didn't stick around long enough to make sure it worked."

"Making it disorganized." I finished.

"Exactly." Wraith nodded. "Now, there's two points in the arena that have the most information. However the IMC computers are set to reset passwords every other hour, to make it hard to crack, meaning we will only have time to get into one of them in the match."

"Why don't we just make two teams?" I wondered. They both looked at me confused. "Well if I go on one team and you on the other, each of us can get into the right terminals and download the information."

"Not a bad idea," Mirage said, "Except we would need someone else who can hack into those terminals. I can't be in two places at once."

"You mean your decoys can't hack a computer?" Wraith teased. "But, you weren't the only one who could help me break into them."

"Who-" Mirage started before he stopped himself. "No."

"I've heard she's back in town," Wraith went on.

"No! I think we could just do it in two matches."

"I'm sorry," I started. "Who?"

"How do you even know she's here?" Mirage went on ignoring me.

"Who?" I asked again.

"She messaged me. We were friends you know." Mirage huffed.

"I can't see her."

"So she'll be on Sly's team then."

"I'm sorry," I interrupted. "Who are we talking about?"

"How do you even know she wants to go back into the games?" Mirage went on.

"You do realize the only reason she took a break was because of you."

"Yeah but-" Mirage cut himself off and sighed.

"I feel like there's a lot of stuff I don't know right now," I said again, though no one was listening.

"Well if you think it's a good idea, you can go talk to her," Mirage said to Wraith.

"I'm going to," she said. "We're getting coffee this afternoon."

"What?!"

"What? She wants to catch up. I figure I bring Sly and we might be able to convince her to help us again."

"I'd rather not be dragged into this," I said, but again was ignored.

"Just," Mirage started. "Just, maybe don't mention me than? The kid is way more exciting anyway."

"Thanks?"

"It'll be fine Elliott," Wraith went on. "I'm sure she's not mad at you anymore." Mirage had no response to this so I decided to take the silence to my advantage,

"Can someone explain what's going on? Who is this person?"

"'Member how I said that things didn't get awkward between me and the other legends after?" Mirage said looking at me. "This one did." Mirage ran one of his hands through his hair. "I feel like it's a bad idea if I see her," I tilted my head.

"What could you have done that was so bad?" Mirage sighed again,

"I broke her heart." I nodded a few times.

"And she's a legend?" I pressed, curious.

"Yeah, not a bad one either."

"Who?"

"She calls herself Wattson."


	36. Chapter 36

I felt nervous about meeting another legend, even though I hadn't even heard of her before. I was sitting in my chair in the cafe we were in, anxiously bouncing my leg up and down.

"I got you an iced coffee," Wraith said as she sat down beside me. I took the cup from her hands.

"How do you know I like these?" She grinned a little,

"Heard you talking about it with Mirage."

"Ah, I do recall him calling it a disgrace to coffee," I said as I took a sip from the straw. "Good thing I didn't try to explain a frappuccino." Wraith had no response and it fell silent between us. As it did, I began to realize that the two of us had never actually spent time with just each other. As if this wasn't awkward enough. Thankfully, the person we were waiting for wasn't late and it wasn't long before she was in front of us.

  
"Wraith! Good to see you again!" she exclaimed, as she spoke I noticed her unique accent and how it complimented the quietness of her voice.

"Good to see you to Natalie," Wraith replied, standing up to give her a small hug. The two sat down and the girl looked over to me.

"You must be Sly," she said with a smile. I nodded and returned the smile.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you."

"As I, you," she grinned. "You have been getting quite popular throughout the games." I laughed a little,

"Not sure if that's a good or a bad thing."

"In today's day and age, good." I grinned again. "So Wraith, how have you been?" Wraith cracked a tiny smile.

"Things have been good."

"Have you had any luck yet? With the terminals?"

"Yes, well, that's actually kind of why I brought Sly along with me today."

~~~~~~~

We spent the next half hour explaining our situation to Wattson. The whole concept seemed to fascinate her.

"Of course I would love to help!" she exclaimed. "I have been wanting to get back into the ring, make sure everything is running okay."

"Trust me, it's still working," Wraith said smiling. I tilted my head.

"Like, the ring itself?" This made Natalie grin,

"Yes!"

"Wattson here made the ring," Wraith explained to me. My eyes went wide.

"Really? A person actually made that?"

"What did you think it was?"

"I don't know, I guess I never thought about where it came from. Just thinking about how to get away from it." Natalie giggled a little. "How does it work?" I asked a second later. Natalie began spouting a bunch of words that had zero meaning to me. "So," I started once she was done. "Science?" She giggled again before it fell silent between the three of us.

"So?" Natalie finally said. "The three of us on a team?" Wraith faked a small grin.

"We were actually thinking about going in with two teams so we could go to both locations in the same match."

"Bunker and Hydro Dam?" Wraith nodded,

"Mirage and I will be going to bunker." I noticed that when Wraith mentioned Mirage Natalie frowned a little. "The terminals in Hydro Dam are a little harder to crack so we figured you could manage it." This made Natalie smile again.

"When would you like to go? I don't believe there are any duo matches coming up soon."

"There's a squad match in two days," Wraith mentioned. "If you are okay playing with a third."

"Of course!" she looked over at me, "Who were you thinking?" I shrugged,

"Doesn't matter. I was hoping you would have someone in mind." Natalie grinned again,

"I used to team with Pathfinder and Bloodhound a lot. Perhaps one of them?" I nodded,

"Sure! I can ask them if you want." I pulled out my new phone and began crafting a text to send to both Pathfinder and Bloodhound to see if either of them were free.

"So," Wraith started trying to keep a conversation going. "What's new with you Natalie?"

~~~~~~~~

I threw myself onto my bed for the night around six in the morning. After Wraith and I had gotten back I had spent the rest of the evening playing Minecraft with Mirage. When I discovered that Pathfinder had it installed in the console he had given me I refused to play anything else. Mirage wasn't enjoying the game at first but once he realized that he really could build anything he became more invested than me. We didn't realize how late it had gotten until Wraith opened up one of the blinds in the living room and sunlight hit our faces.

I groaned as I rolled over in my bed, wanting to brush my teeth before I fell asleep when I caught something in the corner of my eye. Curious, I walked up to my window and opened it up to see a crow sitting on the branches outside. I was about to close the window again and go to bed when I remembered that there were no crows living on this planet. At least, undomesticated ones.

"Hello?" I asked, sticking my head out the window. I looked back at the bird. "You are Arthur right?" The crow fluffed his feathers and I looked around outside, trying to see if the crows owner was anywhere. A second later I heard a small whistle and the crow took off of the branch he was sitting on. I spun around, about to go to bed when I heard a voice outside my window.

"Góðan morgin," I spun back around to see Bloodhound standing in front of my window, Arthur now perched on their shoulder. I grinned a little,

"Hey," I said walking up to the window. "You know there's a door on the other side of the house right?"

"Yes, well, I was not expecting you to be awake yet," they replied.

"Haven't actually gone to bed yet, "I said with a small laugh. "What can I do you for?" The hunter pulled out their phone.

"I had a question about the message you sent me yesterday."

"Oh?"

"I understood the first part, of you inviting me to your team, which I gladly will do if the position has not been filled, but this last word here I was unable to translate." They turned the phone to face me and I looked at the last word of the text. "I was wondering what, lawl, means." I couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Not lawl," I chuckled. "L-O-L. It's an acronym." They nodded slowly,

"L-O-L," they repeated quietly as if they were pondering over what it meant.

"Stands for laughing out loud."

"Was I supposed to laugh?" they asked. "Or was it you laughing?" I did my best to hide my grin,

"Well, it's more just a saying, no one usually actually laughs when they say L-O-L."

"Then what is the purpose of the acronym?"

"Valid question," I thought for a second. "I don't really know. I guess it was used mostly as a space filler."

"Lots of people did this?"

"Yeah, there were a bunch of acronyms when we would text. G-T-G, L-M-A-O, and so on." Bloodhound nodded again, not seeming to understand anything I was saying. I awkwardly laughed a little and looked back to Bloodhound. As I did I noticed that they had a bow strapped to their back. "Going hunting?" I asked, wanting to fill the silence. They looked back at their bow and nodded.

"The woods behind Elliott's house provide fair game this time of year." I nodded. "Well, thank you for explaining Sly. I will see you at the arena tomorrow." They turned around to leave.

"Oh!" I exclaimed before they had gotten too far. "We do have a bit of a side quest for the match tomorrow, if you are up for it."

"A side quest?"

"Yeah, I think we found a lead on who froze me, Wattson is going to help me crack some of the IMC terminals in Hydro Dam." Bloodhound nodded again,

  
"You think the IMC was involved?"

"Maybe yeah," I said, not wanting to explain Wraith's involvement as it wasn't my place to say. "If you don't want to be seen helping I would-"

"I would love to help vinur." I felt myself smiling. "Now, you should get some rest. We have a big day tomorrow." 


	37. Chapter 37

We had just landed on the other side of Hydro Dam. The side opposite to Repulser, where there was a small cluster of buildings. We figured it would be best if we found some loot and made sure the area was clear for us to try and hack into the terminals.

For once, no one else had landed where we did however we still were in a hurry as we knew the ring wouldn't be around Hydro Dam for long. Wattson had suggested that she could hack into the ring itself but we didn't want to be drawing in any more attention than we already were.

Wraith hadn't been the first player to join the games to search for answers in the abandoned IMC buildings in the arena and I knew that I wouldn't be the last. However there was no way for us to turn off the cameras so the whole audience would be watching what we were doing. Before the match we had talked about stuff we could talk about to try and hide the fact that we knew at once point the IMC had cryogenically frozen people to test on.

"Placing fences!" Natalie informed us once we had entered Hydro Dam. She had closed the door and I watched as she placed down different poles and grinned when I saw the electricity lines form between them.

"Those are so cool!" I exclaimed as she ran to the other end to put some at the top of the stairs. She smiled at me when she came back down.

"Now if someone comes in here, we'll know!" I looked over to Bloodhound who nodded in approval.

"I will keep watch out front," they said as they swung around a Triple Take.

"Sounds good," I replied. I walked back over to Wattson who was now sitting on the ground in front of some of the servers in the side room to Hydro Dam. She was sitting crossed legged with a laptop out and was typing like mad.

"This shouldn't take long," she told me as I sat down beside her. She purposely had the screen tilted down just to ensure that if there was a camera, no one would be able to read what was on the screen. "Is this even legal?" I asked a few seconds later, pulling out some of our planned dialogue. Natalie shrugged. Also planned.

"Either the IMC doesn't care or there's nothing valuable in here,"

"At least that anyone's found." She shrugged again.

"What am I looking for again?" She asked.

"Man I don't even know. I'm just taking a shot in the dark with this." It went quiet and all that could be heard was the sound of Natalie's fingers on the keyboard. I sighed a few seconds later and stood up. I began to meander through the tiny bunker we were in. I hadn't had time to actually look around at the places we were in as I was to busy trying not to die.

I spent a minute walking around before I got bored again and began to walk over to where Bloodhound was keeping watch. However I got to the door and realized there was an electric fence blocking my way. I stopped and looked at it. I stuck out my finger towards the line of electricity, but stopped myself and took a step back. How did Bloodhound get through? They had gone out after the fence was set up. I looked back down at the fence and stuck out my hand again. However, this time once I got close the door slid open and Bloodhound walked through. When they got close to the fence it shut itself off and allowed them to pass.

"There's a team advancing this way from Repulser," they said while going to check the other door. As they walked away from the fence the electricity fence lit up again. I blinked a few times. Was it really that easy? For a third time I stuck my finger out and this time went to touch the line. 

"Shit!" I exclaimed as my hand got zapped. I lifted the bottom part of my mask off of my mouth and stuck my finger in to cool it down.

"Sly?" Natalie said from the other room. "You okay?"

"All good!" I replied through the finger still in my mouth. I looked up at the stairs and saw Bloodhound walking back down. They looked at me and saw me standing in the open sucking on my finger. I grinned sheepishly and went to go look at my finger. The electricity had fried a hole right through the suit and melted it to my fingers. "Ow," I said, quiet this time. Bloodhound walked up to me and without saying anything grabbed my hand and began to examine my finger.

"Might need to amputate it," they said in their normal tone while dropping my hand and walking to where Wattson was sitting.

"Wait, wait, really?!" I said, clear panic in my voice. They stopped walking and looked at me. Despite the mask I had a feeling they were raising their eyebrows. "Oh I see, you're a comedian now," I huffed and went to follow them.

"I believe Sly does not have one of your tags," they said upon walking up to Wattson. "For the fences." Wattson looked up from the laptop.

"Oh dear!" she exclaimed. "Désolé!" I laughed a little as she handed me a device.

"It's all good."

"As long as that is on your person you should have no problem passing through." I nodded and clipped the small metal device onto the straps of my backpack.

"Thanks." She nodded and looked back down at her screen.

"How long till that team is here Hound?" she asked without looking up. Bloodhound was now back in front of the door.

"A minute."

"I need two. Can you hold them off?"

"Já," Bloodhound replied. "Sly?"

"On my way," I started to jog over and as I ran I pulled out my Wingman. Bloodhound was positioned on one side of the big doorway so I took a similar stance across from them. They held a finger up to me as if to say 'hang on'. I nodded and turned the safety off of the gun. Outside I could hear the sound of footsteps approaching and I took a deep breath to focus myself. There were two supply bins outside the door and through the window I could see two of enemies in front of them.

"Now," Bloodhound instructed, opening the door. Once it was open enough I prayed to God the fence wouldn't zap me again and jumped through. Upon not being turned into a crisp, I began firing at the only person in the squad of three that was standing still. I landed half of the shots that were in the Wingman and quickly jumped back inside to reload. As I did I looked back at Bloodhound and saw a red glow through their goggles as they unloaded a mag from their Havoc into the second person. Once that person was down I saw Bloodhound looking around and I carefully made my way out from behind cover.

"Was there only two-" I started but before I could blink Bloodhound had their Triple Take back in their hands and fired a shot off in the distance.

"There," they said a second later, lowering the weapon. "Caught them all." I grinned a little as that last line put a song into my head. I looked over at Bloodhound.

"Gotta catch em' all, right?" They looked at me confused. "Would you say that you also want to be the very best? _Like no one ever was?_ " I sang the last few lines.

"What-?" Bloodhound started to ask while looking at me with a blank stare.

" _To catch them, is my real test_ ," I kept singing. " _To train them in my cause_." Bloodhound shook their head,

"We should go back in-"

" _I will travel across the land, searching far and wide_ ,"

"What is Sly going on about?" Wattson asked through the coms as I kept singing.

" _Each Pokémon to understand the power that's inside,_ " at this point I had started dancing as we walked inside.

"I'm not really-"

 _"Pokémon_!" I practically shouted. _"Gotta catch em' all!_ " I pointed to Bloodhound, who had their arms crossed in front of them " _It's you and me, I know it's my destiny!"_

"Are you done-?"

" _Pokémon!"_

"I take that as a no."

" _Oh, you're my best friend._ " I gave Bloodhound some finger guns and kept dancing. _"In a world we must defend. Pokémon!"_ As I sang the last Pokémon we heard a loud bang from upstairs. I stopped myself, mid song.

"The fence is broken!" Wattson cried out.

" _Gotta catch em' all._ " Bloodhound glared at me and I grinned a little. " _Pokémon!_ " 


	38. Chapter 38

Bloodhound had decided it would be best if we waited at the bottom of the stairs for the enemy to come to us. I decided to listen as they knew more than me and I felt I had already annoyed them with the Pokémon theme song and I didn't want to piss them off further. Wattson was still in the side room sitting in front of the computers, claiming she was just finishing up. I had holstered my Wingman and was now weidling an Alternator, I snapped in an extended light mag just as the sound of boots could be heard descending the staircase.

The team walking down was talking in hushed voices, making me think that they didn't know we were down here. Maybe for once I didn't give away our location. Hound and I were perched behind one of the big electrical boxes in the room while Natalie had scooted over on the floor so she couldn't be seen through the glass immediately.

"Got another one of those fence things," one of the enemies said as they walked closer to us. I looked to Bloodhound and saw that they now had a knife in their hand instead of a gun.

"Go take it down, will you?" a second voice replied. I held my breath as the first person started walking closer and closer to us. Their guard was down and once they had walked past us Bloodhound reached and yanked them back all while sending their knife through the others skull. My eyes went wide as they lowered the body onto the ground without making a sound. "What's taking so long?" the second voice asked a few seconds later. "Bud?"

"Shit," the third and final member of the squad said. "He's dead, look!" I could hear them glancing at the screens on their wrists. The second person cursed and I could hear the both of them ready their weapons. I looked back to Bloodhound who caught my gaze and nodded. They held up a hand and on their fingers began counting down. Once their last finger went down I followed their lead and jumped out behind cover. We each had an enemy on our side and it didn't take us long till both of them were down, neither of us getting injured in the process.

"Good work," Bloodhound said to me. I gave them a thumbs up as Natalie walked out of the room she was in.

"We are ready to go," she said with a grin.

~~~~~

We had to jog to make it into the next ring which was close to Bunker. We hadn't seen any other enemies so we decided to take our time walking to the next ring.

"Attention," the announcer boomed overhead. "There is a new kill leader." I looked up to one of the giant banners on one of the rocks and saw Mirage. I shook my head.

"Oh, so I still need to be the one who kills him, BTW." Bloodhound looked at me. "By the way," I quickly added, remembering our talk about acronyms.

"Are you two still having that little competition?" Natalie asked.

"Yeah, and I'm winning one to zero, I'd rather keep it that way. Like, if he's about to kill me, I would really appreciate if you guys could help me out a little. But like, if it's one of his other teammates, don't worry about me." Bloodhound shook their head and Natalie laughed a little.

"What is up with the two of you by the way?" Natalie asked a second later.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well you are dating, aren't you?" My eyes went wide,

"What?! No! God no!" I exclaimed, probably a little louder than I should have. Natalie looked over at me and raised her eyebrows, doubting me. "There's like, so many reasons why we are not dating!" I went on.

"You aren't dating?" Bloodhound interrupted. I looked over at them, bewildered,

"What?! "Really? You to?!" Bloodhound shrugged and Natalie laughed,

"Well let's hear these reasons than," Natalie suggested.

"Okay, while first, probably the most important reason being that I am very much _not_ interested in men." I said, emphasizing the not. "And the second being that we're-" I quickly cut myself off as I remembered Mirage warning me not to tell anyone we were related. Much less the entire world. "Yeah so that's it." I quickly tried to cover myself. Natalie and Bloodhound both stopped walking to look at me. They didn't even need to say anything. I sighed, "He's going to kill me for sharing this but," I sighed again. "Long story short Pathfinder was helping me figure out what happened to my family and stuff after I disappeared and somehow he got it in his head that he should also be tracking my family tree." Both of them looked at me confused. "Mirage is technically my twentieth great nephew."

"Wait really?" Natalie giggled. I nodded and she laughed again. "What are the chances?" I shrugged,

"Ask Pathfinder. Pretty sure he's still trying to put together a full family tree for me and honestly, it's a little terrifying."

"I think it's rather interesting," Bloodhound said as we kept walking towards the ring. "To have a living ancestor."

"Hadn't thought about it that way." I thought for a second, "Although I don't think I make a rather exciting ancestor. Haven't really amounted to much."

"I wouldn't say that," Bloodhound said. "You've made quite an impact since you've joined the games. I'd say you've amounted to a lot more than many people hope to." I felt my face flush and in that moment I was glad that I had the mask over my head.

"Ha, thanks," I managed to get out. I hadn't been expecting a comment like that, especially from Bloodhound. I faked a cough and looked back down on my screen trying to fill the silence that fell upon our squad. Luckily, our awkward silence quickly became filled with the sound of gunfire ahead of us. Bloodhound cocked their head, listening.

"The fighting is on the other side of Bunker," they told us. "Not in." The three of us looked at each other, I could tell we were all thinking the same thing. Wraith's team had been headed to Bunker to crack those terminals. However we had no way of telling if they would have been able to finish by now.

"Should we go around?" I suggested, trying to provide an option that would give them more time. Bloodhound shook their head,

"We will have a better tactical approach if we go through."

"I was afraid you would say that," I muttered. Both Bloodhound and Wattson were looking at me as if waiting for instructions. "What are you looking at me for?" I finally asked. "I am the least qualified person on this team." Natalie grinned a little,

"Well do you want to engage in a fight?" I tapped my foot on the ground a few times.

"I mean you guys probably want to..." I looked over to Bloodhound who hadn't shifted their gaze from the doors of Bunker. They could tell I was staring and turned around to face me, even with the mask I could tell they were itching for something to do. I sighed, "Hound over here is looking like they're ready to pounce so I guess-" I couldn't even finish my sentence before Bloodhound had taken off again, that having been all of the permission to attack they needed. Natalie took off as well and I sighed one more time before jogging to catch up with them.

The two of them had beat me to Bunker and Wattson had already deployed one of her fences outside the door. They were both standing there waiting for me to catch up.

"How are you guys not out of breath?" I huffed once I had made it.

"We have stamina," Bloodhound said simply.

"Sorry I have asthma."

"You have asthma?" Natalie asked, shifting her focus from peering through the windows in the door.

"Yeah?"

"Really?"

"What's the big deal?" I thought for a second. "Wait do you guys have the cure for that or something and just no one's told me?!"

"I actually believe humans evolved past it."

"Are you calling me unevolved?" Natalie looked at me, a little embarrassed. I shook my head. "Now hearing that from Caustic would make sense, pretty sure he already called me that once, but you..." Natalie started grinning.

"We need to move in," Bloodhound cut in before either of us had the chance to say anything else.

"Right." I turned my focus back to the doors of Bunker. "Ready when you are." Bloodhound hit the button to open the door and ran inside, not wanting to give anyone inside the chance to prepare for our attack. When I saw that all of the side rooms were empty I couldn't help but sigh in relief. Wraith's team had done it. However as we ran to the other end I couldn't help but wonder if it was her team that was fighting on the other side of the door.

When I saw a glowing orange dome outside, I knew it was them. The doors were wide open and Bloodhound rushed out and began climbing some of the walls to get a sniping position on the two teams fighting near the small village while Wattson put more fences behind us so no one could sneak up on us.

"I call Mirage!" I yelled as I ran forward as well, wanting to get closer to the fight.

"They are in the buildings," Bloodhound informed me.

"Got it. Headed there now," I said into the coms as I approached the first of the buildings. The door was a crack open so I quietly pushed it open enough for me to slide through. As I walked in made out a body on the ground, gunshot through their head. I winced a little and kept walking to the next room over where there was a standing person. I had my gun at the ready and fired enough bullets to knock the person to the ground. The person began crawling away and out of sight, so I slowly walked closer, reloading my gun. I turned the next corner in the building and finally saw who I had shot. "Gibraltar?" He was in the middle of trying to apply a medkit where I had shot him, his gun a few feet away. I quickly ran forward and knocked the medkit out of his hand.

"Hey there Sly," he said, finally looking up at me.

"Where's Mirage?" Gibraltar chuckled a little,

"Dead already."

"What?!" I put a hand on my head. "You've got to be kidding."

"Sly you have incoming," Bloodhound piped in through the coms. I spun around to look out the window and saw Mirage running at me, full speed.

"Liar!" I yelled over my shoulder at Gibraltar, who only began to chuckle a little more. However since I had one hand off of my gun Mirage was able to fire the first shot, which went through my shields. "Shit!" I exclaimed before turning invisible. "Might need some help over here!" I yelled to my team as I launched myself onto the wall and then the roof. I began crawling back the way I had came.

"Sly?" I heard Mirage ask in a sing-songy voice. "Where are you?" he sung. I looked back down the hallway and saw him practically skipping through the rooms. "I know you're in here!" I shook my head and began crawling faster when the door below me opened. Instead of Bloodhound or Wattson however, it was Wraith. I felt myself inhale sharply, as if holding my breath would somehow stop her voices from knowing exactly where I was.

Sure enough a second later she looked up to the corner of the roof I was perched on, her eyes glowing silver.

"Shit," was all I managed to say before she had put a bullet between my eyes.


	39. Chapter 39

"Please tell me we got everything we needed." I said the second I woke up. Wattson grinned and held up a flash drive. "Thank god," I said, sinking back down into the respawn bed. "How did the rest of the game go?" I asked a second later.

"It was a victory," Bloodhound replied while leaning up against the wall. I grinned,

"Good work. Sorry I wasn't that much help." Bloodhound shook their head.

"You did fine. Had you not taken out Gibraltar we would have lost that battle." I smiled again and it fell silent in the room.

"We should go get the others," Wattson finally said. "See what we found." I nodded and got out of the bed I was in.

"Was Mirage pissed when Wraith killed me?" I asked as we walked down the hallways of the respawn building. Natalie giggled a little,

"He was to distracted ranting to her that I was able to trap them in the building they were in." I chuckled,

"Figures." We walked in silence for a few steps when suddenly I got worried about putting Mirage and Natalie together after what Mirage had told me. "So uh," I started a few seconds later. "If you don't want to see Mirage..." I trailed of and Natalie looked at me a little funny.

"Why would I not want to see him?" I faked a grin and shrugged a little,

"I just heard that things were pretty, weird between the two of you."

"Did he tell you that?" I nodded and she laughed a little and muttered something in French that I couldn't understand.

"Did he make it seem more dramatic than it actually was?" she nodded. "He does have a tendency to do that I've noticed." she laughed again.

"I wasn't aware that any of it was dramatic." I tilted my head and she went on, "I wanted to get a little more serious and he didn't. Quite simple really."

"So you're saying you didn't leave the planet because of him?" I said with a small laugh.

"I left the planet to go study on Gaea! Why would I leave over a boy? That's preposterous!"

~~~~~~~~

The six of us all went back to Mirage's house after we had dealt with the press outside the arena. As expected, we all were asked many questions about what we were doing with the terminals. We tried to play it as if we didn't know what the other squad was up to, but I could tell that no one was buying our story of it being a coincidence.

I quickly shook my worry away once we were able to loose all of the press on our trip back home. We knew that there was going to be more questions with all of us leaving together so we had some of the other legends meet us at the arena as if to make it seem like we had something normal planned.

It surprised me that all of the legends had no problem with helping me and Wraith. They didn't even ask that many questions to what we were looking for. Even Caustic wanted to help, claiming he was 'repaying the favor' for when I had 'assisted' him with his research that one night.

We were all lounging around in Mirage's living room watching the match on T.V as Wattson and Mirage combined the data they found and began to comb through it with the help of Pathfinder. Caustic had also tried to help, seeming to be friends with Wattson but Mirage had shooed him away after he had made a comment about Mirage's arrogance.

"So you think the IMC froze you?" Bangalore was asking me once the game had ended. I took a sip from my drink,

"Well, no, they didn't exist yet." Wraith had wanted the fact that she was also from 2019 to stay between Mirage, Pathfinder, and I which I was okay with however it was making it harder to try and make my story more believable. However even though we were lying, a had a feeling that the others knew that Wraith and I were connected in some way.

"Then why the suspicion? We _all_ aren't bad." I had a feeling I was approaching a touchy subject with the soldier. Luckily I was saved as Lifeline wrapped an arm around her,

"No, you aren't," she said with a grin, pulling the other closer to her. Bangalore rolled her eyes at her girlfriend but didn't protest being held. However she did look back up at me, still waiting for an answer to her question.

"I just," I sighed, "Just have a hunch. I don't know, it sounds dumb but like at one point I was technically government property. Since the same governments aren't around it makes sense, at least in my mind, for other powerful organizations to gain control over what they had in the past. Myself included." A few people around the room were nodding along with me and even though I had made up that excuse on the spot although as I said it I realized that was very well what could have happened.

"Makes sense," Bangalore finally said a second later, causing me to sigh in relief. I knew that I didn't want to start a fight about the IMC with anyone, much less an old soldier from it.

"Alright kids," Mirage said walking into the living room where we were all sitting. "I think we may have something legible!"

"I'm older than you," I huffed as I stood up.

"Was that true about you two being related?" Octane asked a second later.

"Unfortunately," Mirage responded with a sigh before looking over to me. "I still can't believe you told everyone."

"It's better than having them think we're dating!"

"Should I take offence to that?" Mirage asked, causing a few people to grin. "Now should we?"

"Hang on," Wraith said, stepping into the room, it was clear by her stance that her voices were acting up. "Somethings not right." All eyes turned to her, waiting for an answer. She had a death grip on her hair, grasping the side of her head as if it were an attempt to quiet down the voices. Mirage went up to her and grabbed the hand off of her head and held it.

"Take your time," he said in a calming voice. The pain had now knocked Wraith to the ground and purple sparks were flying out of her fingertips and Mirage was doing his best to support her. He looked over at me and I could see the clear worry in his eyes. "Are you sure it's not just acting up?" Mirage asked to Wraith, making me wonder if this was a more frequent occurrence. Wraith shook her head,

"I can't-" she started. "Can't understand."

"It's okay," Mirage commented. I looked around at the other faces in the room, some of them looking worried as well. I looked back down to Wraith and watched as suddenly her eyes turned silver.

"They're coming," she said.

"Who?" Mirage asked. Wraith stood up and looked around the room, her face whiter than ever.

"The IMC." 


	40. Chapter 40

"The IMC?" I exclaimed, jumping up off the couch. Everyone in the room was looking at Wraith who nodded. "Shit!"

"They coming armed?" Bangalore asked, standing up as well. Wraith nodded again.

"Heavily,"

"Shit!" I said again.

"Maybe they just want to talk," Mirage suggested. Wraith glared at him before looking over at me,

"They're here for us."

"Shit!" I yelled for a third time. From outside we could hear the sound of multiple ships flying above the house.

"You have guns, right?" Bangalore asked, looking over to Mirage. He nodded quickly and Bangalore looked over to me, "We'll keep you safe." Everyone else who wasn't standing by now stood up and followed Mirage to where he kept the guns we used for training. I grabbed an R-301 and looked over to Mirage.

"My house is going to get ruined again, isn't it?" I cracked a small grin and he sighed. "Caustic?" he yelled across the room a second later. Caustic spun his head around as he loaded a peacekeeper. "Set up some traps." I could see the gleam in Caustic's eyes as Mirage gave him permission to use his gas in the house. He nodded and took off again, heading towards some of the entrances to the house, Wattson right behind him with some of her fences ready to go as well. Mirage looked back over to me, "You stay here."

"But-"

"Natalie can we get a fence just right around Wraith and Sly?!" Mirage yelled, ignoring me. "Maybe give em' some gas masks and stick em' in a room with the gas traps?!"

"I'm not sitting behind a fence," Wraith told Mirage, walking past him.

"Same," I said. However as I tried to pass Mirage he put his hand out to stop me.

"Until you learn to phase between dimensions like her, you're staying here." I crossed my arms in front of each other,

"It's my fault they're here!" I looked around at the room of people who I had only known for a short period of time getting ready to defend me with their lives. "You're putting your lives at risk for me! I want to help!"

"Félag," Bloodhound put a hand on my shoulder as they were walking out the door. "You can help by keeping safe." I nodded a few times, wanting to protest more but I knew our visitors were going to be here any second so instead of arguing, I made my way towards the section of the house that was set up with the most traps and sat down on the ground, hugging my rifle. My mind was beginning to fill with all the worst case scenarios of how this could go down. Clearly we had found something worthwhile on our hunt today that they didn't want us to have. But Wraith had said that they were here for us. I felt myself gulp when I thought about if that meant they wanted us alive or dead. Outside of the house I could make out the sound of gunfire and without realizing I found myself biting my nails.

"Aye suga', keep ya chin up. They got this," I looked up and say Ajay kneeling in front of me. She saw me biting my nails and grabbed my hand and looked down at my nails. "You ever paint these?" she asked. I couldn't help but laugh a little at how casual she was making this whole situation feel. Although, that was probably the effect she was going for. I was about to reply when suddenly the power shut off inside the house. It was pitch black outside and the only thing lighting the room was the glow from Wattson's fences. I continued biting my nails.

"Ajay?!" a voice yelled from the front of the house. "Need a medic!" I stood up to go with Ajay but she pushed me back.

"Stay here!" I could see in her eyes that she was being deadly serious so I plopped myself back down to the ground. The gunfire outside wasn't quitting and didn't sound like it would anytime soon. I swung my R-301 around and began to debate if I should go out there and help. I was about to decide that my best bet would be to stay where I was when I heard the sound of one of Caustic's barrels go off around the corner from me. I scrambled to my feet and aimed my gun down the hallway.

"Caustic?" I asked, tremble clear in my voice. I looked around behind me and saw that it was just me inside the house. I gulped again as I slowly took a step towards the gas that was leaking out from around the corner. I couldn't hear the sound of anyone choking to death and was about to sigh in relief when I saw three green lights moving through the gas, without trouble. They had gas masks.

I took a step backwards closer towards the wall and began to crawl up as the three figures came into view. Once it was clear that it was the IMC I began to fire my rifle. I knocked the first person down but didn't get far into shooting the second before they had the chance to fire at me as well. I felt something pierced my neck and it wasn't long before I was feeling very woozy. I brought my hand up to my neck and pulled out whatever I had been shot with. It looked like a dart.

"That can't be good," I muttered as I lost my grip on the wall and went tumbling to the ground. I tried to stand myself but up but couldn't. I felt someone grab me from under my shoulders and began dragging me across the floor.

"We got the kid," I heard a voice from above me. My vision was starting to go dark but I could see as I was being dragged the fighting still breaking out across the lawn in front of me. They had wanted the others to be distracted. I tried to call out but no sound was coming out. I thought I had seen a flash of red goggles turn my way but couldn't be sure as black spots began to cover my vision. I felt myself get dragged onto one of the ships that the IMC had bought and felt myself getting strapped down onto something.

They were planning on taking me back.

"No," I managed to get out while fighting for consciousness. "Ple-please." The door to the ship closed along with my last glimpse of hope. It was getting harder and harder to keep myself awake and was about to doze off when I heard the familiar sound of an Arc Star lodging into something.

A second later a loud explosion rocketed the ship, causing metal to go flying. I yelled out as some of the metal lodged itself inside me. As the ship started sinking back towards the ground I tried to move, to try to grab onto something only to find that I was still strapped down onto something. I put my head back and forced my eyes shut so I didn't have to look at the fast approaching ground, deciding to just give into whatever the IMC had injected into me, turning my world completely black.


	41. Chapter 41

The first thing I noticed when I woke up was how scratchy and uncomfortable the blanket was that was draped over my legs. The second was just how much pain was coursing through my body. It didn't take me long to remember what had happened and I quickly sat myself up, groaning through the pain. My eyes were frantic as I looked around where I was.

I was sitting on top of a leather couch in a living room I didn't recognize. The room was fairly small and hardly decorated. I glanced out the window to see where I was and saw a forest of trees. My breathing started getting more and more rapid, did the IMC capture me? I swung my legs over the couch, however the second I put weight on my feet I went tumbling back down to the ground. As I fell I noticed that someone had stitched me up and I had a huge bandage across my side, which was now turning red as I ripped the stitches by falling. I bit my tongue to try and avoid reacting to the pain as well as to try and keep myself from blacking out again, when I heard footsteps approaching from another room. I felt myself inhale sharply as I looked around for something I could use to defend myself.

"Relax, Félag," a familiar voice said, still in what they always wore in the arena.

"Bloodhound?" I couldn't help but sigh in relief. "Where-?" I started before feeling very woozy again.

"You are safe," they said while bending down to help me lay back down on the couch. As they did they noticed the blood soaking through my bandages. "You have ripped your stitches," they said while standing back up.

"What, what happened?" I asked as they walked over towards a small kitchen extending off from the living room. "The others?"

"They are safe as well," Bloodhound said while walking back towards me with a first aid kit in hand. "After I took down the ship you were in, the IMC retreated. At least what was left of them." They pulled up a chair beside the couch and sat down. "May I?" they asked while motioning down to my bandages. I nodded.

"Then why-" I stopped myself as Bloodhound removed the bangaes, sending a wave of pain through my side. "Why am I here?"

"Since the IMC made an attempt to capture, we figured it would be best if you were not in a place so easy to find," they said while beginning to clean off some of the blood.

"Is this?" I thought for a second. "Do you live here?" They nodded once. "Wow," I laughed a little through the pain in my side.

"Not what you were expecting?" I looked around at the fairly modern house and shrugged.

"Don't really know what I was expecting if I'm being honest." Whether they smiled or not I couldn't tell because of the mask. They reached into their first aid kit and pulled out a needle with some thread. I watched as they pulled their gloves off so they could thread the needle and I couldn't help but wince, "Do you not have a medkit like from the-" I cut myself off as they jabbed the needle through my skin without a warning. I bit my bottom lip to stop myself from vocalizing my pain. Bloodhound began stiching my wound back together, causing my lightheadedness to come back.

"This would be easier if you stopped sqirming," they said a few seconds later. I nodded a few times,

"Right," I winced as they did another stitch. "Sorry." Hound looked up at my face from stitching the wound.

"You feeling dizzy?" I nodded again. "Here," they extended one of their ungloved hands to me. I looked at them confused. "Take it. Focus on squeezing my hand." I did as instructed and grabbed their hand. It was softer than I had been expecting. I didn't get much time to reflect on that fact as a second later they were using their free hand to finish the stitches. I began squeezing Bloodhound's hand as they finished, trying to focus on that instead of the black spots that were covering my eyes again. "Almost done," they said after a couple more seconds. "Just one more-" however I did not get to hear the end of the sentence as my head had spun one to many times causing me to pass out again.

~~~~~~

The next time I woke up the scratchy blanket was all the way up to my chest. I grabbed the front of it and yanked it up even further, enjoying the warmth over the scratchiness of it. Knowing I was in a safe location I took a few seconds to access myself. The pain in my side had faded a little however my entire body was still sore. I groaned a little as I fought with the blanket a little more, getting it stuck on a bandage over my shoulder. On the other side of the room I thought I could hear someone chuckle.

"Need some help over there?" Bloodhound said, noticing the blanket stuck over my shoulder. I huffed and stop messing with the blanket, admitting defeat. Bloodhound came up to me and helped me sit up on the couch, while unsticking the blanket all while sitting down beside me.

"Thanks." They looked over at me,

"How are you feeling?" I thought for a second,

"Better."

"Good," they stood up off of the couch and looked back at me, "Hungry?" I nodded. Bloodhound turned back around to walk to the kitchen where I could tell by the smell that there was something cooking on the stove. I sighed and leaned back further into the couch I was resting on.

"How long have I been out?" I asked as Bloodhound began filling a bowl with something.

"A couple days."

"A couple days?!"

"After the ship crashed Ajay sedated you pretty heavily to heal you. You lost a lot of blood." They walked back over to me and handed me a bowl. I looked down and saw that it was a stew of some sort. As I held it, I began to notice a good smell coming off of it, sending a loud growl through my stomach. I grabbed the spoon from the side and eagerly took a bite.

"Oh man," I said, closing my eyes to savor the taste. "You made this?!" Bloodhound nodded,

"Do you see anyone else here?" I chuckled a little,

"And I thought Mirage was a good cook!" I took another bite. "Damn, this is good!" It fell silent in the small house as I continued eating, Bloodhound not seeming to be taking their eyes off of me. I realized that I was probably the first person they had ever had in this in a long time, if at all, and I could tell by their posture the situation was making them a little uncomfortable. "I appreciate you letting me stay here," I said as I finished my bowl of stew. "It means a lot." They nodded,

"You have been a good friend to me," they said. I felt myself blush a little and quickly looked back down at my empty bowl.

"I'll try not to get in your hair too much," I said looking back up. "If there's anywhere in here you don't want me to go just let me know." They nodded a few times before pointing over to one of the two other doors, both which were closed.

"The room on the left is a bathroom. The other is my bedroom. I would prefer if you remained out of it." I nodded.

"Got it."

"Would you like some more stew?" Bloodhound asked a second later. I grinned again,

"If you don't mind." Bloodhound stuck a hand out and I handed them my bowl. This time as they were filling it up they stopped to open one of the windows above the stove. As they did this I watched as a crow flew in. Arthur dove right past Bloodhound and came over to where I was sitting and perched himself on the small coffee table in front of the couch while cocking his head to the side, as if he was analyzing me. I reached out to pet him but stopped myself when I remembered the last time I had tried to do that, the scar still on my finger.

"Play nice Arthur," Bloodhound said a second later as they were walking back over. They nodded over to me, "You can pet him." I smiled again as I stuck my hand back out, cautiously. This time as my hand got close the bird took a step closer and put his head under my hand, as if nuzzling it.

"How'd you get a crow on this planet anyway?" They shrugged and I laughed a little. "Right. Sorry, I get curious."

"All good."

"Where even are we, by the way? If I can ask."

"We are about an hour out of the city." My eyes widened.

"Isn't that like, pure forest?!" They looked at me with the same blank expression that is on their mask. "Right. You know it makes sense."

"They won't be able to find you here Félag." I nodded a few times.

"How long do I have to stay in hiding?"

"I am not sure. But you are welcome to stay here for as long as it takes."


	42. Chapter 42

It had been a few days since I first arrived at Bloodhound's and I had yet to wander past the couch. The wound on my side had began to heal however it still was painful trying to move around. There wasn't much to do at Bloodhound's house as the only channels they got were the ones that played the Apex games or the interviews from after.

I got bored of watching the interview chanel after it showed the same interview with Mirage three times in a row. It didn't take long for the media to scoop up the story about Mirage's house being attacked again, and Mirage had spent the interview trying to convince people it wasn't the IMC in hopes if we lied through our teeth, the IMC would leave the rest of them alone.

As for where I was, Mirage had said that I was 'taking a break from the games' and whenever he, or any of the other legends for that matter, were asked where I was they simply replied with different mundane tasks. I had actually found it fairly amusing to watch. Yesterday Mirage had told everyone I was out on a quest to find the ingredients to make a pizza pocket.

I had just woken up when Bloodhound came through the door, with fresh game over their shoulder. They usually went out hunting in the morning for a few hours, not wanting to leave me for too long. As they walked in today they looked over at me,

"You're awake early today," they said.

"It's nearly noon," I paused. "Oh. Very funny."

"How are you feeling?"

"Good! I even made it to the bathroom by myself!" I thought I heard Bloodhound chuckle a little. 

"Good to hear," they replied as they set down their prey on the table.

"So what's on the agenda for today?" I asked, wanting to keep a conversation going.

"Well Lifeline invited me to join her team with her friend Octane, but I declined."

"What?! Why?"

"In case you need something."

"Bruh. I think I'll be fine for a few more hours." They looked at me and tilted their head. "Go have fun! I don't want my being here to be a burden."

"You are not a burden." I raised my eyebrows. "But if you insist. I will see if they still need a teammate." I grinned as they pulled out their phone. I leant back on the couch and pulled out the remote again to see if anything had changed in the last three minutes. It had not. "Are you sure you are going to be okay Félag?"

"Yes!" I exclaimed, dragging out the word. "Go!" They nodded a few times before whistling, sending Arthur flying to their shoulder.

"Alright," they said after giving Arthur a pat on the head. "I will see you after."

"Good luck!" I yelled out the door as they left. Once the door was closed, I lay back on the couch and sighed, wishing I still was able to use my phone. The match wouldn't even be on the T.V for another two hours. Maybe I shouldn't have sent Bloodhound away so that I could've spared myself from boredom. I grabbed the blanket off of the floor and wrapped myself up. I could go for a nap.

~~~~~~

I figured Bloodhound was going to be hungry when they came back so I decided to give cooking a go. They didn't have much in the pantry, at least things that I knew what they were. I decided that I would be able to make grilled cheese.

It did not go as well as expected. I only almost lit the house fire twice. Turns out stoves had changed since I had used one seven hundred years ago and it appeared that they were smarter than me. By the time I had finished making two sandwiches for myself and two for Bloodhound the game had already started. Bloodhound and their team had landed in Skulltown and had drawn first blood. I settled back into the couch with my mediocre sandwich and watched the match.

~~~~~~~~~

I had fallen asleep on the couch again by the time Bloodhound made it back home. I heard the door and sat up, checking the time, the match had ended hours ago. Bloodhound saw me awake and looked over,

"Sorry for waking you." I rubbed the sleep out of my eye,

"All good. Congrats on the win," I said with a grin. They nodded once,

"The Allfather has blessed me this day, even with the added nuscience on my team." I laughed a little,

"Yeah Octane is quite the..." I paused, trying to figure out the right word. "Personality," I finally finished. They nodded again,

"Yes, well, if you do not require anything I am going to retire for the night," they said as they started walking towards their bedroom.

"Oh! Wait!" I exclaimed. "I made grilled cheese!" They turned around and looked at me confused. "There's a few extra in the fridge. If you want them," I quickly added.

"Grilled cheese?" Bloodhound asked a second later.

"Yeah you know, like some bread and cheese, but, you know, grilled." They slowly walked over to the fridge and pulled out the plate of food I had left. They picked up one of the sandwiches and looked at it closely.

"This is not cheese," they said a second later, pulling the top piece of bread. My eyes went wide.

"Well that explains why it didn't taste quite right," I laughed a little. "You don't have to eat it, I just thought-"

"Thank you," Bloodhound interrupted me. "I'm sure it will taste great." I smiled as they began to walk back to their room. "Oh," they said a second later, swinging around the backpack they had on. "Mirage and Pathfinder put together 'party package' as they said." Bloodhound handed me the backpack and I quickly opened it up. I grinned as I saw the xbox from my house in my bag along with a dozen game discs I hadn't had before. "I believe Pathfinder also put in a harddrive with movies," Bloodhound explained.

"This is awesome!" I had already taken the Xbox out and hobbled back over to the T.V before I stopped myself. "You don't mind, do you?" They shook their head.

"Good night Sly."

~~~~~

It was nearly four in the morning when I was woken up by the sound of distress. I quickly sat up and looked around when I realized the screaming was coming from Bloodhound's room. I jumped up off of the couch and ran over to the door but stopped myself as I placed my hand on the doorknob. The only rule they had given me while I was here was to not go into their room. I put my ear up to the door. There were no sounds of anyone moving around or fighting inside the room and I sighed.

They were having a nightmare.

I started to twist the knob to the door, wanting to go in and wake them up but I stopped myself again. I didn't want to lose their trust. Instead of going in I began to pound on the door with a fist. It didn't take long for them to wake up and the next sound I heard was them practically jumping out of bed.

"Sly?!" I heard them exclaim, footsteps approaching the door. "Is everything okay?" I could tell that they didn't have their helmet on their head as their voice was suddenly a different tone. Although now I could hear the concern in it.

"I'm fine!" I said, loud enough that they could hear me through the door. "Are you okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be-?" they cut themselves off as they put the pieces together. "Did I wake you?" It sounded like they were just on the other side of the door and I could hear their breathing, still shaky from the dream they were having.

"Nah," I lied, not wanting them to feel bad. "I was still playing a video game." I heard a sigh on the other side of the door before hearing the sound of Bloodhound sliding onto the floor. "Do you want to talk about it?" I asked, sliding down to the ground as well. They remained silent, although I did think I could hear a sniffle. "That's okay. We don't have to talk."

I leant my head onto the back of the door, wondering what was going through Bloodhound's mind. I looked down at the crack between the door and the floor and saw them still sitting there so I put my hand on the ground and stuck a few of my fingers through. I heard a small chuckle before I felt Bloodhound place their hand on top of mine.


	43. Chapter 43

The next morning was awkward between Bloodhound and I. I think they were attempting to go hunting before I woke up however I had spent the rest of the night replaying a video game, thinking about what had happened. The two of us sat on the floor for quite some time before Bloodhound finally got up and I'm assuming went back to bed.

When they walked out into the living room this morning they made eye contact with me but quickly looked away. I paused my game and watched them as they gathered what was needed for a hunt. Finally, I sighed,

"So, about last night," I started, wanting to break the silence. Bloodhound looked back over at me.

"We do not need to discuss it," they said harshly. I put my hands up defensively and they sighed, realizing the tone of voice they had used. "I'm sorry," they added a second later. I was about to say more when they cut me off again. "I am going hunting," they said, ending the conversation by walking out the door. I watched out the window as Arthur flew onto Bloodhound's shoulder as the two of them began to walk further into the forest. I shook my head and looked back to my video game, the settlements weren't going to help themselves.

~~~~~~

A few hours later my gaming was interrupted by the sound of something rapidly tapping the glass on one of the windows. I carefully stood up and walked over to where the sound was coming from. There, I saw Arthur furiously tapping his beak on the glass. I popped the window open so he could fly in and I turned back around to go back to my game. However Arthur only began squawking at me as I went to start my video game again. He flew up to me and began to pick at the controller in my hands causing me to drop it.

"Hey!" I tried to shoo him off of me but he only started squawking more. "What?!" I exclaimed, trying to figure out what he wanted. He responded by trying to claw my sweatshirt, practically dragging me up off the couch. I squinted my eyes. "Wait. Where's Bloodhound?" As I said their name Arthur let out another frantic caw and flew up to the door. "Arthur?" I went up to the door and opened it, Arthur began to fly out but stopped to look back at me. I got a bad feeling in my stomach as I began to follow.

I knew something was wrong as Arthur began flying faster and faster, only stopping to make sure I was still there. Trying to sprint through the woods was sending pain through my side where I had injured myself from the plane crash but I was too worried to slow myself down.

After a few minutes after hobbling through the forest Arthur swooped down to the ground and began cawing at me. I ran over to where he was and followed the bird's gaze.

"Shit," was all I managed to say as I saw what was in front of me. Bloodhound was sprawled across the ground, lying in a pool of blood. "Bloodhound?!" I exclaimed as I ran up to them. It looked as if they had been attacked by some sort of creature as they had various claw marks covering their body, the most noticeable being a large gash that tore through their helmet, leaving blood pouring out. I cursed again as I crouched down beside them while grabbing their wrist to check for a pulse. My relief was short lived when I realized that I was going to need to get Bloodhound back to the house while they were unconscious. I looked back over to Arthur, who was still looking worried.

"Don't worry bud," I told the bird and I began to try and get one of Bloodhound's arms around my shoulder so I could get them off the ground. I knew I wouldn't be strong enough to carry them properly, especially well I was still injured. I began dragging Bloodhound across the ground, as carefully as I could when I realized I had no idea where I was going. I looked over to Arthur who was still perched on a branch. "Can you get us back?" I asked the bird who simply tilted his head. "Home," I said. "How do we get home?!" my voice was getting frantic. Arthur seemed to understand what I was saying and immediately took off flying. I readjusted my grip on Bloodhound, trying not to make their wounds any worse and began to follow.

By the time we had made it back to the house Bloodhound had lost a lot of blood. After struggling to get the door open I set them down on the couch and stood up again, trying to think of what to do next. I couldn't call anyone, there wouldn't be time for me to wait for them even though I could find something to call them with.

"Okay, okay," I began muttering to myself. "First aid kit." I finally decided. I ran over to the kitchen and began to scour through the cabinets. I found a small kit that I began to bring back over when Arthur squawked at me again. He was sitting on top of a small cabinet. I opened it up and almost laughed when I saw one of the medkits that they had in the arena. Although, it didn't surprise me that they had smuggled a few out, I knew Mirage had a couple hiding in his house as well.

I grabbed the medkit and went back over to Bloodhound. I knew the medkit wouldn't be enough to help everything but I knew it was enough to stabilize them. The biggest wound looked to be a large gash on their stomach so I quickly began to remove all of the gear Bloodhound had on so I could apply the kit directly to the skin.

The kit is finished and the wound on Bloodhound's stomach had almost completely closed back up. I opened up the first aid kit and pulled out what I needed to finish stitching it up. I looked down at the needle and thread and gulped. I had never even learned how to sew.

"Don't suppose you know how to do this?" I asked looking back over at Arthur. He tilted his head. "Right. You are a bird." I figured it would be a better idea if I started with the wounds on the side before working my way up to their head so I could get a feel for how to stitch up another human being. I took a deep breath and got to work.

Bloodhound was still unconscious when I had finished patching up the claw marks on their stomach and side. I looked over at the wound on their head, it looked as if the helmet had taken the brunt force of whatever was attacking Bloodhound however there was a single claw mark that had made it all the way through the helmet and into the side of their head. It wasn't bleeding as much as it was before I had used the medkit but if I didn't do something soon we were going to have more problems on our hands.

I scratched my head as I realized that I was going to have to take off their helmet to be able to stitch it up correctly. I brought my hands down to the clasps at the bottom that locked it in place but stopped myself, feeling uneasy. I decided that saving their life was more important than keeping their trust and I unclipped their helmet. The air began to hiss out of the mask as I carefully began to lift it off of Bloodhound's head when all of a sudden I felt a hand wrap around my throat, cutting off my airways. I looked down to see Bloodhound frantically trying to figure out what was happening.

"Bloodhound," I managed to gasp out. "It's, it's me." Their grip didn't loosen and I began to cough. "H-hound. Please-" I tried to grab their hand to stop them but even injured they were still stronger than me. "You need-" I was gasping for air, "Stitches." I looked at them right in the eyes. "Please-" Just as I thought I was going to black out I felt their held let go of my throat. I fell backwards on the ground as I tried to catch my breath.

" Félag?" I heard Bloodhound say quietly. They muttered a few words in Norse I couldn't understand before looking back over to me. "I-" they started but stopped themselves.

"It's okay," I said as I knelt back down in front of the couch, having caught my breath. "Your head needs stitches though, I need to-"

"Okay," they cut me off. "Do what you must." I nodded a few times, about to say something to them when their body went limp again. I checked their pulse again, just to make sure, before I looked back at their helmet.

With my shaky hands I began to lift it off of their head, to worried about helping them that I didn't have time to consider the amount of people that would be willing to do anything just to see Bloodhound's face. But in that moment, it didn't matter what they looked like.

I threw the helmet onto the ground and got to work on stopping the bleeding.


	44. Chapter 44

It was hard for me to sleep that night. I had spent the rest of the day pacing around their house, trying to keep myself busy to stop my worrying. Bloodhound was still lying on the couch as I didn't dare try to move them. They seemed to be in a stable condition but had yet to wake up again. There was a small arm chair in the corner of Bloodhound's living room that I decided to try and sleep on, although it wasn't the most comfortable sleeping positions.

I found myself periodically waking up throughout the night in a cold sweat, after having dreams where I kept finding Bloodhound dead. After the third nightmare I decided I had enough sleep and went to check on Bloodhound again. I had managed to clean most of the blood off of them and removed most of their heavy gear hoping it would make them more comfortable.

Since I was up early, I took time to try and give cooking another go, figuring when Bloodhound woke up they would be hungry. I spent nearly twenty minutes staring into the pantry then going to stare at the fridge and back again, hoping I would think of something to make. I looked over to Arthur, who had yet to leave Bloodhound's side since we got back.

"Any ideas?" I asked him. The bird looked at me and tilted his head. I sighed and grabbed a couple of eggs from the fridge, deciding it would be the easiest thing to make. As I got out a pan and began to fry the eggs Arthur flew over to me and sat on the counter beside the stove, watching me cook. "You're probably hungry to hey?" Upon saying the word hungry I saw him fluff his feathers. I opened up the fridge again and tried to think of what I had seen Bloodhound feed Arthur before. "What do you want?" I asked the bird over my shoulder. Arthur replied by flying into the fridge and pulling out a small container, which had some dead insects inside. "Ah," I said as I opened it up. "I probably should've been able to figure that one out myself."

I set the container of food down and Arthur happily hopped onto the counter and began to eat some of the bugs. I turned back around to the stove, having more success this time around cooking when I heard movement coming from the couch. I looked over and saw Bloodhound finally stirring and I began to walk over. It seemed as they had heard me and spun their head around to face me. They quickly realized they were still without a helmet and I saw their face flush before they spun back around.

"Sly?" they started a second later, sounding embarrassed. "Where is my helmet?" As they spoke I noticed that their Icelandic accent sounded even thicker without the voice changer they had in the helmet.

"It's on the table," I replied. "Although, it's not really in the best of shape." As I said this I watched as they brought a hand up to the side of their head, resting it on where the bandages were, but only wincing a second later, lowering their hand. "Do you remember what happened?" I asked. They nodded.

"It was a Golaith," they said quietly. "I should've seen it but my mind was distracted." They mumbled a word in their native language that I only assumed was a curse.

"It's not your fault." I heard Bloodhound huff at my statement and started trying to get up. "Can I help?" I asked after watching them struggle to sit up on the couch, trying not to rip any of the stitches. They shook their head but a few seconds later sighed.

"Please," they said quietly. I nodded and helped ease them up onto the couch so that they were leaning across. As I did I noticed that some of the bandages on their head had started soaking through.

"Can I look at your stitches?" Bloodhound was looking down at the ground, not wanting to make eye contact with me. "Please?" I asked. They were silent. "Alright fine. Good luck trying to do it on your own." With that statement I started walking back to the kitchen.

"Wait!" Bloodhound interrupted. "I'm sorry." I looked over at them and for the first time since I had taken their helmet off they looked at me. "I just-" they sighed and ran a hand over their face. "I don't like being seen like this." They looked back down.

"I get it," I said a second later. "But it's just me here. You can trust me."

"I know." I grinned a little,

"Now. Can I look at your stitches?" They nodded and I walked back over to the couch. "Can you sit up?" I asked. Bloodhound nodded and I helped them sit up so that I could sit beside them. I began to take off some of the bandages, causing Bloodhound to wince. "Sorry," I said. Once the bandages were off I noticed that one of the stitches had ripped. "I'm going to need to fix a stitch." I told Bloodhound. They didn't reply as I pulled the first aid kit out again and began to thread the needle. This time they didn't flinch as I began to fix the stitches and it fell silent between the two of us.

"How did you find me?" Bloodhound finally asked a minute later. I laughed a little,

"Arthur actually. He came to get me." I heard Bloodhound chuckle.

"He is a smart bird."

"You trained him well," I said. "Can I ask you a question?" I asked a second later. "Although I think I know the answer."

"If you must."

"Am I the first of the legends to see your face?" I heard them take a sharp inhale as I asked the question. "You know, nevermind-" I started.

"Yes," they interrupted. "Although, you were also the first not to ask why I covered it." I shrugged,

"Figured you had your reasons." I had finished fixing the stitches and I pulled out a cloth and began to clean some of the blood again before I put new bandages on.

"Is it what you were expecting?" They turned their heads around so that I could look at them again. I thought for a second.

"I mean, I didn't really know what to expect. Don't have any complaints." I laughed a little, "Although I didn't think your eyes would actually be red."

"Is that a good thing?" they asked, suddenly sounding embarrassed.

"Are you kidding?! It's so cool!" I gushed. "Like I thought it was just something you did to your goggles!" I could see from behind them that Bloodhound blushed a little. I grinned as I finished putting the last bandages on. "There," I said. "All better."

"Þakka," Bloodhound replied, leaning back into the couch, nearly right against me. I tilted my head and tried to repeat the word the word they had just said. "Þakka," they said again. It means thanks." I grinned and also leaned further back on the couch so that our shoulders were touching.

"I think there's a match starting soon. Wanna watch it?" Bloodhound shook their head,

"You had said there was a movie from your time, about the Allfather?" I felt myself grinning even wider,

"You want to watch Thor?!" Bloodhound nodded. "Really?! Not even Mirage wants to watch that with me!"

"We could give it a go."


	45. Chapter 45

The next few days were spent watching Marvel movies. After watching Thor, Bloodhound wanted to watch the next one, they actually seemed to enjoy the movie, however, I insisted that we had to watch the films in order, meaning we had a full marvel movie marathon on our hands. The first night we had made it through all the way to Iron Man 3, by that time it was nearly four in the morning and both of us fell asleep on the couch. When I had woken up Bloodhound's head was in my lap, which made for some awkward conversation when they finally woke up.

We were just sitting back down for the third night of movies, starting with the second Guardians of the Galaxy, when I was pacing in the kitchen, looking for a snack.

"Can I help you find something, vinur?" Bloodhound asked from the couch. The movies had turned out to be a great distraction for me to keep an eye on Bloodhound. They had wanted to go back out hunting the second day after being nearly killed and I had to convince them to watch another movie so they would stay and not injure themselves further. Now on the third day they were showing a lot of signs of improvement and I found myself feeling sad thinking about the fact that they would soon be well enough to sleep in their own bed, thoughts I quickly pushed away.

"I don't know," I replied. "What do you guys eat while watching movies these days?" Bloodhound shrugged,

"I don't go to the movies." I perused my lips.

"What about popcorn? Do you have that?" I had yet to see any since I had woken up in this time period.

"Popcorn?" Bloodhound asked, I could see the confusion in their face.

"Yeah, you know, pop corn." They raised their eyebrows. "It's like corn, you still have corn, right?" Bloodhound nodded. "So like, we need some. Well the seeds. I think."

"You want to eat corn seeds?" I laughed a little,

"No! I want to pop them!" Bloodhound's mouth opened a little as if they were going to say something, but stopped themselves and sighed.

"I have some corn seeds in the back of the pantry. I have been meaning to plant them." I grinned as I dug around the pantry for the corn seeds. Once I had them I began to look for something to cook them in. "You're going to cook the seeds? Those are hard to come by, you know." Bloodhound said a second later, after watching me pour a handful of the seeds into a pot.

"Yeah, you need to heat them up. Trust me! You're going to love it!" I heard Bloodhound mumble something in their native language, I could tell they didn't believe me. "What was that?" Bloodhound grinned,

"I called you an idiot." Now I grinned,

"That may be true." I heard a loud popping sound from inside the pot and my grin grew even wider. "Although, this idiot, didn't forget what popcorn was like the rest of you." As the popping continued Bloodhound stood up and carefully made their way over to the kitchen, examining the pot. Once I heard the popping stop I grabbed a bowl. "Are you ready?" They nodded. I took the lid off of the pot and poured the popcorn in. "Ta-da!"

"Woah," Hound said quietly, their eyes wide with wonder.

"Cool, hey? Go ahead, try some!" They slowly reached forward and grabbed a single piece. I watched eagerly as they ate it. They finished one piece and reached down to grab another, a small smile on their face. "Yes!" I exclaimed. "It's even better with some melted butter on it if you want."

"It's perfect the way it is." I grinned again.

"And now, we are ready to watch the movie." I grabbed the bowl from Bloodhound's hands and made my way over to the couch, patting the cushion beside me. "I really think you'll like this one, Baby Groot is the best part."

"Groot isn't dead?" They asked as they sat down so that our shoulders were touching. I moved the bowl of popcorn so that it was resting on both of our laps.

"No! Remember, Rocket grabbed a branch at the end!" Bloodhound slowly nodded and grabbed a few more pieces of popcorn.

"I did like Groot. He was interesting."

"Right?! His character really changes in this one, I won't spoil anything, but he is the cutest-" The next thing I knew I was being interrupted as Bloodhound had suddenly put their lips on mine. Out of instinct I felt myself jump back before I realized what they had been doing. I looked back at them, their eyes wide, and felt my heart flutter.

"Sorry," Bloodhound started. "I thought-" This time I cut them off by returning the kiss. I felt them grin as they put a hand around my head to pull me closer to them. A few seconds later we pulled away from each other. Both of us having stupid grins on our faces, which caused both of us to laugh. Finally Bloodhound spoke up, "Can we watch the movie now?"

~~~~~~~~

The next few days went by even faster than the last. Although there had been no more kissing, the two of us had spent the rest of the movie marathon nestled up to each other. Especially after Endgame, as I had not seen it yet and it left me a weeping mess. Bloodhound had laughed a little at me but quickly wrapped an arm around me and wiped away some of my tears.

The two of us had been living in our own little world that by the time Bloodhound's phone rang we both looked at it confused.

"Apologies," they said as they gently pushed me off of them to go answer it. I wiped the rest of the tears from my eyes and watched as they went into their bedroom to answer. A few minutes later they came back out, now wearing their helmet again for the first time since they had been injured.

"Who was it?" I asked curiously.

"Mirage," they replied. "They think it's safe for you to come back."

"Oh," I said as I processed. "Do I have to?" I heard Bloodhound chuckle a little through their helmet,

"It's probably best." I looked down at the ground, unsure of how to feel.

"When?" I asked quietly.

"Today. They have some sort of plan that should keep you safe."

"But-" I started but I interrupted myself, trying to get my words together. "What about," I paused and looked back up at Bloodhound. "What about us?" This sentence seemed to have caught Bloodhound off guard as it took them a few seconds before they responded.

"We should keep what happened here, with us, here." Their words hit me like a rock. I quickly looked back down at the ground so Bloodhound couldn't see the tears welling up in my eyes,

"So you want to pretend like nothing happened?" my voice cracked. Bloodhound sat down again beside me and slid their helmet back off of their head.

"I don't want to put you in any more danger," they said while putting a hand on my shoulder.

"But-"

"People will ask questions."

"So?" Bloodhound sighed.

"While you may be okay with the press, it is not something I handle well."

"They won't find out! And, and-" I was stuttering. "If they do, we can just deny and claims!"

"Vinur, please," their said, their voice quiet. "Enough." They looked away from me and slid their helmet back over their head. "Now come, we shouldn't keep Mirage waiting."


	46. Chapter 46

The way back to Mirage's house was dead silent between Bloodhound and I. I kept trying to think of different things to say that would make our situation any better but I was at a loss for words. We ended up having to walk through half of forest before we had even made it to a road. Bloodhound had a small SUV type vehicle hidden away in some branches that we then climbed into to drive the rest of the way into the city. Not a single word was spoken between the two of us for the entire drive.

Bloodhound parked their car far away from Mirage's and instead we walk the rest of the way to the house. The closer we got to Mirage's house I began to start thinking about how nice it would be to be back home and I quickly used this excitement to push away the sadness I felt about Bloodhound not wanting to continue exploring a relationship.

The second I walked through the front door to Mirage's house I was greeted with a giant bear hug from the man himself.

"Sly!" Mirage exclaimed, hugging me so tight I was being lifted off of the ground. "It's so good to see you!" I grinned and hugged him back.

"Same here Mirage, now do you mind putting me down?"

"Right," Mirage let go and set me back down on the ground. I looked around at the house and noticed that a lot had changed. "It didn't fair to well having a ship crash into it," Mirage explained, noticing me looking around. "That and Caustic's gas really messes up the paint." I grinned a little,

"It looks good." I took a few steps towards the living room and as I did, I noticed there was a fair amount of people sitting around. "Hey guys," I said to the handful of legends.

"Greetings!" Pathfinder was the first to exclaim.

"What are you all doing here?"

"Wanted ta welcom ya back!" Ajay said with a grin.

"That and we think we have a plan to deal with the IMC," Wattson explained. I nodded a few times.

"Right, yeah." I had almost forgotten that they had been trying to kill me. "So what is it?" I looked to Mirage and saw him faking a grin.

"Well actually, the plan is to do nothing." My eyes grew wide.

"Nothing?!"

"I've been listening in on some of the chatter between the IMC," Bangalore started. "From the sounds of it, the attack here was not planned and the higher ups aren't happy about it. There won't be another anytime soon."

"I thought the IMC cut off contact with you?" I asked, hesitantly. I saw Bangalore smirk,

"That doesn't mean I cut off contact with them." I tilted my head, confused. "Thanks to Pathfinder, I can still access some of the old radio channels." I nodded a few times.

"Okay, but doing nothing won't hold them back forever," I pointed out. Mirage nodded,

"That's where things get fun actually." I looked back over to Bangalore.

"There have been attempts by different players in the games trying to destroy the data being stored there. Sent by the IMC."

"That doesn't sound good."

"It's not. If you or Wraith want any more information out of those, you're going to have to do it soon."

"Where is she, by the way?" I asked, looking around the room.

"Safe," Mirage said. "Other than that, we don't really know."

"Is she coming back soon?" Mirage shrugged,

"At the last game, where we went to bunker, we were able to pull out a small file about her and..." he trailed off. "It wasn't the most happiest of things to read." This caused me to frown and no one in the room said anything for a few seconds.

"So, when are we going back into the arena?" I finally asked. Mirage grinned again,

"Tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow?!"

"Yeah, we're going to do the two teams again, one in bunker, one in hydro dam."

"Ah," I said a second later. "That's why Caustic is here." For the first time since I arrived Caustic looked at me, although it was a glare. I grinned a little. "So what's the teams?" There were eight people total in the room and I was wondering how we were supposed to make two teams of three.

"Well Anita and I are taking off after this to head back home for a few days, so we're out," Ajay said with a grin. I looked over to Bangalore who did not look as excited about this fact.

"So, I was thinking of me, you, and Bloodhound," Mirage said.

"Perhaps we should send Sly with the other group," Bloodhound suddenly said. "So they know what they are looking for." I opened my mouth to say something but quickly realized what Bloodhound was implying. They didn't want me on their team. I felt myself look down at the ground so that the others couldn't see what I was feeling, although the silence in the room made it pretty clear.

"Well Sly, you can join me and Caustic in Bunker!" Natalie finally exclaimed. "It will be fun!" I grinned a little,

"Sure, yeah." Mirage clapped his hands together,

"Alright! We'll see you all tomorrow. Ajay, Ani- Bangalore, have fun on your trip!" Everyone began to file out of Mirage's house. "Wait, Bloodhound!" Mirage spoke up. Bloodhound stopped in their tracks and spun back around to face him. "I just wanted to thank you for letting Sly stay with you. I know it was a trem-tr-mu, uh, a big ask." I looked back over to Bloodhound, wondering what they were going to say back. They saw me looking and made eye contact with me. I grinned a little and they quickly looked back at Mirage. They nodded once.

"I will see you at the arena tomorrow." And with that statement Bloodhound left as well. Once the door was closed Mirage looked over at me.

"I'm so glad you're back. You've missed so much between-"

"I'm going to bed," I mumbled, cutting him off.

"Awe, what?! You just got back!" Mirage exclaimed, following me as I walked over to my bedroom. "I want to know how you've been! What was Bloodhound's house like? Do they-"

"I'm really not in the mood Mirage." I was about to close the door in his face when he put his hand on it to stop me.

"Is everything okay? I thought you would be excited to come back!" I sighed,

"I am, really. And it is good to see you."

"So what's bothering you than? Did something happen at Bloodhound's?" I didn't say anything. "You can talk to me, you know that, right?" I nodded a few times,

"I just need some sleep." Mirage stood in the doorway for a few seconds, rubbing his beard as he thought.

"Alright," he finally said. "I'll come wake you for dinner."

"Okay, thanks," I said quietly. Mirage nodded and closed the door for me. I stood there for a second and sighed. I threw myself onto my bed and took a second to relish in the fact that I was back in my own bed. After sleeping on Bloodhound's couch for a couple weeks this bed felt like a cloud. As I lay I couldn't help but start thinking about Bloodhound again, replaying our conversation back at their house over and over again in my mind, trying to convince myself that they didn't want to break things off completely. Then I remembered that they stuck me on a team with Caustic.

I rolled myself over onto my stomach so that my face was in the pillow. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day.


	47. Chapter 47

The next morning I found myself feeling nervous for the match I was about to play. I hadn't played or trained in a few weeks and it was the first time I had Caustic on my team. There was also the fact that Bloodhound was on the opposing team and they were going to try and kill me. Not that that was unusual during the games but it still felt like another thing to be concerned about. We were driving towards the arena in Mirage's car when I realized he was waving his hand in front of my face.

"Hello? Earth to Sly?" he exclaimed. I blinked a few times.

"Yes, sorry, what did you say?" I hadn't been paying any attention to what he was rambling on about this morning, my mind was far to distracted.

"I _said_ , I'm thinking today is the day I finally kill you."

"Right, yeah," I mumbled without looking over.

"You still weren't listening were you?" I was gripping the mask in my hands, wondering about what I would say if I ran into Bloodhound in the arena. "Sly?!" Mirage practically yelled, causing me to jump out of my seat. I looked over at him, bewildered. "Are you sure you're good enough to be going into the arena today?" I could hear the concern in his voice. "The IMC isn't going to be going after you, if that's what you're worried about." I forced a grin,

"Yeah." Mirage sighed and gave me a pat on the shoulder with his free hand.

"It'll be fun! It's always interesting having Caustic on your team!"

"I'm a little worried he's just going to kill me." Mirage laughed a little,

"I think he's only ever killed one of his teammates. At least, 'purposefully'" he made air quotations as he said purposefully and I looked over at Mirage.

"Wait, really?!"

"Oh yeah, the people in charge of Apex were not happy with him. Banned him for a couple of months." I whistled.

"What about the other times then?"

"After that first time he always makes it look accidental, but we all know." Mirage looked over at my worried face and laughed, "Don't worry. He only ever does it when he gets paired with random people. He considers them far to dumb. Which he's not that wrong about."

"Doesn't he also concider me far to dumb?" Mirage shrugged. "That's reassuring," I said with a small grin. Mirage noticed me smiling and nudged me a little,

"There she is," he said, seeming pleased. "Now, you should keep that up, for the cameras."

"Don't remind me."

~~~~~~

After meeting up with Wattson and Caustic and getting our respawns we made our way to the drop ship.

"So we're just headed right to bunker?" I asked, feeling nervous again. Caustic nodded once,

"We will need time to set up a defence."

"Right, got it."

"You still have that tag I gave you last game?" Wattson asked. I nodded a few time and motioned to the small device she had given me so that I would be able to pass through her fences without getting zapped to death. "Caustic will give you a gas mask as well!" she said happily. Both of us looked over to Caustic. We locked eyes and for a second I started to wonder if he was just going to let me die in his gas. "Caustic?" Wattson said a second later. Caustic sighed,

"If you insist," he mumbled while reaching into his bag to pull out a gas mask. I took it with a grin, "It should work over your mask."

"Thanks," I said as I looked over the mask. I heard Caustic mumble something under his breath that I couldn't quite understand. I decided not to worry about it and put the mask in place. I saw Mirage and his sitting down on the other side of the drop ship and walked over. "How do I look?" I asked Mirage. Mirage looked at the gas mask over my face and shook his head.

"Just hope it works," he said with a grin.

"I think you look great friend!" Pathfinder cut in. I smiled a little back at the robot. I then glanced over to Bloodhound who was also sitting beside Mirage. They were sitting fiddling with an axe in their hands. I decided it would be best if I went back to my team instead of pushing my luck. When I got back they were already getting ready to jump out of the ship.

"Ready?" Wattson asked me, grinning ear to ear. I nodded. "Then let's go!" she exclaimed while jumping out of the ship. Caustic and I followed suit and a second later we were soaring down towards Bunker. As we fell I noticed another team was also headed towards the other side of Bunker.

"Sly, grab the loot from the boxes outside," Caustic instructed just before we hit the ground. "We will go to the end other to meet our guests." My eyes went wide at the comment but I decided not to question it. We hit the ground and I began to do as instructed, opening up the three bins outside the entrance to Bunker before running in, arms full of various guns, ammo, and healing supplies.

We landed on the bottom end of Bunker and once I reached the staircase I could already hear screaming coming from the top. By the time I had made it up the stairs, the screaming had stopped and I carefully poked my head into one of the side rooms. Caustic was standing in the middle of the room, looking over at three dead bodies, his gas still lingering around the room.

"Wow," I whispered under my breath.

"What was that?" Caustic asked, spinning his head around to face me.

"Uh," I stuttered, "Good, uh, good work." I looked back down to the handful of loot I still had in my arms. "You want a gun?" I quickly changed the topic, "I'm thinking I'll take the Flatline and you can-" I was cut off by Caustic taking the Flatline from my arms, "Oh, well that's cool to, yeah." I looked down at the G7 Scout he left me with and sighed.

"Now if you will excuse me," Caustic said, "I have notes to take." He crouched down in front of one of the bodies, now pulling out a small notebook. My eyes drifted towards the bodies and I couldn't help but notice that none of the people had invested in respawns. Caustic looked back over to me, who was still standing in the middle of the room, dumbfounded. "Do you have a problem?"

"Uh," I started. "I'm going to go check on Wattson," and with that statement I quickly walked out of the room. Natalie was now back at the rooms at the bottom of the stairs, seeming to have found some loot of her own inside Bunker, and was sitting on the ground with her laptop out. I sat down beside her, feeling safe knowing that the entrances of Bunker were well secured.

"Caustic still upstairs?" Wattson asked without looking up from her screen. I nodded,

"He's taking notes." She nodded once, not seeming as concerned about this fact as I was. I tried to look over at her laptop screen but like last time she had it tilted far down so that the cameras wouldn't be able to capture what was on it. "What are you up to?" Before the match Wattson had also mentioned wanting to do something else while she was in Bunker and not just focus on the IMC files.

"I am checking the status of the ring."

"You can do that?" She nodded a few times,

"I like to check it every now and then to make sure it is running optimally."

"Do you have to do it while were here?"

"Yes and no. I have access to the data after each match but it is more useful to get it while we are inside."

"Sounds complicated." Wattson shrugged and I laughed a little. It fell silent and I found myself slumping down on the ground till I was practically lying down.

  
"Comfy?" Wattson asked, noticing my position.

"Uh-huh. Could use a pillow though." Natalie laughed a little and once again the room was silent, until we heard Caustic come back down to where we were. He walked into the room and made eye contact with me as I was lying down on the ground. I gave him a small wave and I thought I could hear him scoff. "How'd the note taking go?" I asked, still lying on the floor.

"You do not have to pretend to be interested in what I do."

"Are you kidding?!" I propped myself up on my elbows. "I love science!" Caustic raised his eyebrows. "You know, I know more than you think I might."

"Name one chemisty fact."

"Uh," I scratched my head while sitting up the rest of the way. "I know there's a, uh, proton, thing! Yeah! And then, there's also this neuron. No wait, that's in your brain. What's the other word?"

"Neutron?" Caustic did not sound impressed.

"That's the one! And then together, those two guys do some uh," I made a spinning motion with my hand. "And that's what the things are made of. All things actually." I could tell by the look under Caustic's mask that he had no idea how to respond to any of the words I had just spouted. He looked as if he was about to say something when there was a loud explosion coming from outside the Bunker doors. All three of our heads snapped in the direction of the sound.

"I'll go check it out," I said standing up.

"I shall follow," Caustic said, leaving the room behind me. The two of us made our way over to the doors and past Wattson's fences so we could see out the windows in the big doors. Outside I could make out two teams fighting. One outside of the Bunker doors and the other in the buildings across the river.

"Uh Natalie?!" I exclaimed behind me. "You might want to hurry it up!"

"I'm just about finished!" I heard echo back to me. I looked over to Caustic who had one of his gas grenades in his hands. Without saying anything he opened up the door, leaving the both of us in the open, and chucked the grenade out to the team taking cover behind the bins I had looted at the start of the match. Immediately shots were being fired in our direction and I quickly slammed the button to shut the doors.

"What the hell dude?!" I exclaimed to Caustic. He didn't reply and simply kept gazing out the window to his cloud of gas. A second later there was a loud slam on the window to Bunker and I could see a man, clutching his throat as blood trailed out of his mouth and eyes. He was trying to get inside. I watched in horror as the effects of the gas finally finished him off and he went falling to the ground.

"Attention," the announcer started. "There is a new kill leader." I looked down on my wristband and saw that Caustic had taken out that entire squad with his gas, meaning he was at a total of six kills.

"Uh, good work man." I stutterd, still trying to shake the image of the dying man from my brain.

"I do not relish the title," he started, still looking out at the bodies. "I relish the kill." I felt my mouth fall open a little.

"Right. Sure." I looked behind me and now saw that Natalie had joined us, laptop back in her bag. "Well, hope you're ready to relish some more," I said to Caustic. "Because now that team they were fighting is after us." 


	48. Chapter 48

The team that was across the river had the advantage over us as they were inside the next ring and we in Bunker were not.

"What's the plan?" I asked looking between Wattson and Caustic. The ring was closing in a minute and I could see both of them lost in thought of a plan that would have us coming out of this situation alive.

"I can provide cover with my gas for us to loot the people outside for better gear," Caustic said a second later. He looked over to me and I nodded and then went on. "Since you have a sniper rifle Sly you can provide cover as we push up." I felt myself gulp,

"I'm not really the best shot with-"

"Let's move," Caustic interrupted. I sighed and watched as he opened up the doors to Bunker. He threw down a couple of his gas barrels and shot at them so the green gas would provide cover for the three of us. Wattson ran out and threw down her interceptor pylon as well, just in time as the team across from us had begun throwing grenades. The three of us each ran to a different body that was in front of Bunker that had been killed to loot. I drew the short straw and only came out with a P2020 to add to my arsonal. As I moved through Caustic's gas I took a second to appreciate that he had actually given me a gas mask that worked. Maybe he wasn't that bad. As the gas began to fade away the team across from us began shooting.

"Sly!" Wattson exclaimed. "Cover us!"

"I can try!" I yelled back while propping the sniper onto one of the open supply bins outside of Bunker. I had managed to get a sniper scope on the rifle and now I could see the team we were shooting at. It was Mirage's team. All three of them were shooting at Wattson and Caustic so I started randomly popping shots in the general direction of them, just enough so they would duck into cover and let my team run. Once the two of them had made it to the next house over they started shooting and gave me a chance to turn invisible and run to join them. Once in the house I quickly ran up the stairs to take another sniping position in the windows. "Two of them are coming towards us!" I yelled back down to my team where I could hear them setting up a new line of defence. "I call Mirage!"

I turned back to the window and began to focus on the team approaching. From outside I could see Pathfinder and two Mirage's running towards us through the river. I knew I wouldn't be able to actually hit a shot on either of them so I started looking around for the third member of the team. A few seconds later I saw the glint of a rifle hidden among some of the tall grass across the river. I zoomed in my scope and saw Bloodhound lying there with a perfect shot lined up on me. I felt myself inhale sharply but a second later they still hadn't taken a shot. Even though their team was literally attacking mine a floor below. I tilted my head and adjusted my grip on my sniper, looking back to Bloodhound who still hadn't moved. They had to know I was watching and had a decent shot lined up as well. Why weren't they firing?

"Sly?!" I heard Caustic yell from downstairs, his voice getting mixed with the sounds of gunfire and gas traps going off.

"Coming!" I yelled but not before looking back out the window, but Bloodhound was gone. I quickly shook my head, trying to focus myself and pulled out my P2020 while attaching myself to the ceiling instead of walking down the stairs and crawled. Once I was at the bottom I could see that Mirage was already dead as some of Caustic's gas had leaked through the window slits. "I said I called Mirage!" I exclaimed as I dropped down to the ground. Caustic looked back over at me and I could tell from the look in his eyes he was not wanting to put up with me. "But it's, it's fine." I quickly added, causing him to huff. I heard the sound of Pathfinder's grapple and realized that I should've stayed on the top floor of the building. I quickly ran up only to meet Pathfinder in the middle of kicking the door down. I started unloading the tiny clip in the P2020 into him but then realized he was wielding a Prowler. I took a step backwards, hoping to get better footing however I forgot that I was standing at the top of the staircase and I second later I went tumbling down, cursing which each thud of me going down a stair, finishing with a loud smack as my head collided with the floor.

I was pretty sure that I had blacked out for a second as the next thing I knew Wattson was helping me stand up. I blinked a few times.

"Did we not die?" I asked looking around to see that I was still inside the arena instead of in a respawn bed. Natalie giggled,

"Of course not!" I looked over to Caustic who was sitting silently while using a medkit on himself. I rubbed the back of my head where I had collided with the floor. As I did my eyes scanned the scene in front of me. Pathfinder's body was in the middle of the floor, mostly in one piece. Next my eyes gazed out the window were Mirage's body lay however now beside him lay Bloodhound.

Suddenly, my chest felt really tight, eyes locked on Bloodhound. They were lying on their stomach, nearly mirroring their position the day I had found them bleeding out in the forest. Except now they really were dead. My breathing started getting shakier as the nightmares I had that night started flashing back in my mind. Before I knew what was happening, I was nearly hyperventilating.

"Sly!" I heard a gentle voice exclaim in the distance. I felt someone put a hand on my shoulder but I was still unable to shift my gaze and instead I practically fell down to my knees. I saw Wattson now kneeling down in front of me but all of the words she had been saying were flying right over my head. I tried to close my eyes, to stop seeing Bloodhound dead in front of me but the image simply reflected back.

I felt a sharp shock on my shoulders and my head snapped up, eyes wide.

"Sly!" Wattson said again. "It's okay," she kept her hands on my shoulder. "You're okay." I nodded a few times. "Breathe." I nodded again, trying to steady my breathing. "Mirage has a respawn," Wattson told me, "He's going to be fine. They all are."

"Y-yeah," I stuttered out, clenching my hands into fists to try and stop them from shaking. "I'm, I'm sorry," I said a second later.

"It's okay." Wattson said, still in a soothing voice. "You haven't played in a while." Feeling better, I looked back at Caustic, afraid of what he was going to say or do. He saw me looking,

"If you are feeling better we need to move," he said. "The ring is closing again." I nodded a few times again.

"Yeah, yeah let's go." Wattson helped me stand back up.

"Here," she said handing me Pathfinder's Prowler. "Take this." I grinned under my mask although she couldn't see it and grabbed the gun. The three of us began to head out the building, out the same door where Bloodhound's body was. I felt myself looking back down when Caustic started talking to me.

"Tell me Sly," he said, causing my head to look back up and away from the bodies. "Do you experience panic attacks often?"

"Uh," I started, taken a little aback by the question. "Yeah, I used to get them a lot, back," I paused, "Before. I had been on medication to help but I haven't really had access to them since I've been here." I saw Caustic nodding along as I spoke. "Haven't had one that bad in a while though," I said looking back down to the ground, feeling a little embarrassed, especially at the fact that I was saying all of this on live TV.

"They still make medications for that," Caustic said a second later. "Perhaps I could get you some."

"Really?" I squinted my eyes, unsure if he was actually being serious with his offer. Caustic nodded,

"That way we can avoid a situation like the one back there."

"Right."

"Guys?" Wattson interrupted our conversation. "We have company up ahead." Caustic and I looked in front of us and saw the clear sign of a fight that had happened as we made our way through the small paths in the mountains, making our way to bridges.

"Last team as well," I added, looking down at the screen on my wrist. I must've blacked out for longer than I had thought. I got the Prowler out ready to fire as the three of us slowed down as we came to the exit of the caves. Sure enough there was another team of three who were awaiting our arrival. They must've heard us coming. Caustic quickly whipped out another one of his gas grenades and I turned myself invisible as the other team started firing. Caustic's grenade hit some of them and they began stumbling around, trying to get out of the cloud, only to meet me standing with the Prowler on the other side.

Quickly I had two of them down thanks to the select fire attached to the weapon. I could hear the sounds of someone coughing and gasping for air and realized that the last person in the team was still stuck inside of Caustic's gas. I made my way back in, still thankful for the gas mask I had been given and saw Caustic eagerly watching the last person suffocate.

"Attention," the announcer said a second later. "Winner decided." I heard Wattson cheer and I grinned again. I looked back at Caustic and saw him examining the corpse, even as the ship came to take us off of the island. As it landed Caustic stood up again and looked at me.

"Not bad," he finally said. I was about to make a remark when he interrupted me again, "Now. I'll need that mask back."


	49. Chapter 49

I ended up getting bombordered by reporters as we got off the ship taking us back to the mainland. I had wanted to go wait for Mirage to wake up, but he ended up having to rescue me from the ever growing list of questions I was being asked.

I didn't mind answering the questions as I knew it would be a chance to make my few week disappearance I had seem less suspicious. Although, on the spot, I may have answered a few in a way that made it seem even more suspicious than it really was. I was in the middle of trying to explain my recent re-discovery of popcorn to the cameras when I saw Mirage making his way through the crowd, waving to the cameras. He came up to me and put an arm around my shoulder as he began to answer a few of the questions before finally pulling the both of us away from the scenario.

However once we got back in the car it fell dead silent between the two of us. I could tell Mirage had something on his mind so after a few minutes of driving in silence I finally asked.

"What you thinking about?" I asked in a decently cheerful voice. Mirage looked over at me and pursed his lips, "What?!" I asked again.

"That panic attack you had," he started. I groaned a little,

"You saw that?" He nodded once,

"It wasn't because you saw me dead, was it?" I felt my face flush and I quickly turned away to look out the window of the car. "I knew it!" Mirage exclaimed. "Something did happen!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," I mumbled.

"Please," Mirage went on. "You're talking to the _King_ of Romance! I know sexual tension when I see it."

"Weird brag," I interrupted.

"But I'm right, aren't I? You two..." he looked over at me and wiggled his eyebrows. I smacked him,

"No! God no!" Now he simply raised his eyebrows and refused to break eye contact with me. Finally I caved, "It was just a kiss." Mirage grinned wide and smacked the steering wheel in excitement,

"Look at you go!" I put my head in my hands in embarrassment. "That explains why they weren't into me! They're into girls!"

"That's your first thought?!"

"What? It's good to know it wasn't me." Now I raised my eyebrows. "Okay,"  
Mirage went on, ignoring my look, "What was it like?"

"Doesn't matter," I sighed. "They made it pretty clear when I left they didn't want to keep seeing me."

"Ah," Mirage said. "That's why you were sulking yesterday." I didn't say anything. "Well if it means anything, Bloodhound left in quite the hurry today after watching the footage of our fight."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Mirage shrugged.

"Well, I pointed out that it looked like they had had a clear shot on you but they got flustered and left when I mentioned it so..." he trailed off.

"I saw that to." Mirage grinned again.

"You just gotta give them time, clearly they're not over you." I rolled my eyes a little.

"I don't know Mirage," I shook my head. "Can we change the topic please?"

"Well, Tav is coming over for dinner tonight." I tilted my head,

"Tav?"

"Octavio!"

"Why?"

"We're kind of a thing now," he said casually. I looked over at Mirage, bewildered,

"You are?!" He nodded. "Since when?!"

"Not long after you left. Things really heated up once I had the house to myself actually. There was a lot more places to-"

"And that's enough details!" I interrupted. "Why didn't you tell me!?"

"Well I tried to last night but you kind of shut me down." I frowned.

"I guess I did do that didn't I?" Mirage nodded again. "I'm sorry." Mirage waved a hand,

"It's fine! Relationships can be confusing, you were distracted." I was about to protest that we weren't in a relationship but I felt bad for ignoring him yesterday.

"So," I started. "You and Octane?"

~~~~~~~~

Mirage spent the rest of the car ride gushing about the dates he and Octane had gone on while I was gone. He seemed genuinely happy about how things were going and didn't want to spare me any detail, despite my constant asking for less information. By the time we had made it back home, I couldn't help but feel a little relieved that I could escape for a little bit before I actually had to deal with both of them being here.

I went into my room, eager to have a shower as it still felt like I had the smell of Caustic's gas lingering on me, despite having taken off the suit. However when I walked into my room and shut the door I quickly realized I wasn't alone.

"Jesus Christ!" I exclaimed as I saw the figure standing in the middle of my room. I put a hand on my chest. "What the Hell Bloodhound?!" I practically shouted.

"I apologize for frightening you, Vinur," they said in a rather calm voice.

"How did you even get in here?!"

"The locks on your windows are not well made."

"You _broke in_?!" I shouted even louder.

"I wanted to talk to you."

"Ever heard of this thing called a phone? Maybe a door? Knocking?!" Bloodhound put a hand out,

"Sly," they started. "Please calm down," I held a finger up and I felt my face getting red,

"You can't just break in here, still dressed for fucking battle and expect me to be calm! You better have a damn good reason why you're here! Especially after-" I cut myself off as Bloodhound slid their helmet off of their head.

"Now will you listen?" I wanted to make a remark but I held my tongue. "I want to talk about what happened in the arena today." I heard myself scoff.

"Course you do," I muttered. They didn't say anything for a second. "I'm listening," I finally said. Bloodhound sighed,

"I wanted to make sure you were okay." Now I sighed and motion down at myself.

"I'm fine, see?" I walked over to the window and opened it up again, "Now if you don't-"

"What happened in there can't happen again," they said, crossing their arms. Now I closed the window, nearly slamming it,

"You're one to talk!" I exclaimed. It appeared this comment had taken them a little aback.

"I don't know what you speak of," they tried to defend. I rolled my eyes,

"Please! We both know you had the _perfect_ shot lined up on me! A shot that could've saved your team and won you the game! You want to tell my why you didn't take it?" I crossed my arms in front of my chest. I saw Bloodhound bite their lip, unsure of what to say.

"I-" they started but quickly stopped themselves. I raised my eyebrows, waiting. They opened their mouth again but instead their head snapped over to the door. "Someone's coming," they quickly said, spinning around to put their helmet back over their head.

"Good news!" Mirage proclaimed as he swung the door wide open. "Oh hey Bloodhound."

"Mirage!" I exclaimed, raising my arms into the air. "Can't you knock?!" Mirage shrugged,

"It's actually good you're both here! Hope I'm not interrupting," he said wiggling his eyebrows. I put a hand on my head.

"What do you want?"

"Well long story short, we got jack shit today in terms of IMC files, but the next game coming up is a champion game."

"And?"

"I signed the three of us up to be a team!"

"You did what?!" Both Bloodhound and I exclaimed at the same time.

"Yeah, we still haven't heard from Wraith so we can't get our original team back together and the two of you work well together so I figured..."

"You didn't think to ask us first Elliott?" Bloodhound asked. Mirage shrugged and I saw Bloodhound sigh, once the teams were put in for a game like this there would be no changing. "I must get going," they said and pushed past Mirage to leave out the front door. Once the door was shut I proceeded to smack Mirage,

"What the hell were you thinking?!"

"I'm thinking, it'll be a good chance for the two of you to fix things!" I curled my hands into fists to try and calm myself down. Mirage noticed and put a hand on my shoulder. "You'll thank me later. Now come, I promised Tav a home cooked meal and I haven't actually made anything yet." 


	50. Chapter 50

With a champion game on the horizon it also meant that there was going to be another dinner party. And since we won last time it meant Mirage was hosting again. He spent the days leading up to it planning, claiming that he wanted to impress Octane who had never been to one of these. And with Wraith still nowhere to be seen it meant that Mirage was going into overdrive planning the party as a way to distract himself from worrying about her.

I tried to stay out of his way as much as possible, wanting to give myself some time to train. It was clear from the last game that taking a few weeks off had really worsened my aim. Mirage would occasionally come out to train with me however most of the time he was just asking what I thought about different ideas for the party.

Part of me was feeling nervous about the fact that a game this big was about to take place and our third teammate didn't want to train with us. While part of me was glad that Bloodhound was avoiding me, sparing us both from awkward interactions, it only seemed to make me dread the game and the party more and more.

"Just don't make it weird," Mirage was saying the day of the party as we sat around eating breakfast.

"Well it's too late for that," I mumbled taking a bite of my food. "They made it weird when they broke into my room." Mirage laughed a little,

"I think it was romantic." I raised my eyebrows,

"So if Octavio broke into your room you'd be okay with it?"

"If Tav broke into my room I am sure it would be for _much different purposes_." I gave Mirage a look of disgust and he laughed at me. "Listen. It'll go fine tonight. There'll be plenty of people here you can talk to instead." I crossed my arms in front of my chest and held back I comment I had about my feelings towards social gatherings.

"Okay," I finally sighed.

"That's the spirit!" Mirage proclaimed. "Now I need to go get ready."

"The party doesn't start for five more hours!"

"Exactly!"

~~~~~~~~

This time Octane was the first to show up, per Mirage's request. The two of them spent the last hour before the party trying to 'decorate the house' which only resulted in the two of them creating more of a mess for me to clean up behind them.

Like last time, Pathfinder was the first to arrive at the party, this time carrying some sort of casserole.

"Hello friend Sly!" he exclaimed as I took the dish from his arms. "It is only four fifty-"

"Yeah, yeah," with the hand that wasn't holding the food I grabbed Pathfinder's arm and dragged him inside. He stood there looking baffled while I closed the door. Now that he was inside he followed me over to the kitchen and set down the food he had brought before looking over at me, the same smiling face still on his screen,

"How have you been friend Sly?" I grinned a little,

"I've been good. Can't believe it's already been four months since the last one of these."  
  
"Amazing the passage of time!" the robot exclaimed, causing me to laugh a little. There was another knock on the door so I gave Pathfinder a pat on the shoulder and went to go answer it.

One by one the rest of the guests arrived, and each time I opened the door I prepared myself to face Bloodhound, feeling confident that I could get through the night without making the situation any worse than it already was. However, each time I opened the door, it was everyone but Bloodhound. By the time six o'clock rolled around the dinner party was in full swing and they were yet to be seen. Everyone was chatting with one another but like last time I had perched myself away from the crowd, keeping one eye on the door. Would they really bail on the whole thing just because of me? After half an hour of sitting by myself Mirage finally came and sat down beside me.

"Bloodhound just texted me," he said. "They're not coming." I scoffed,

"Figures."

"Here," Mirage handed me a drink. "You need one of these." I reluctantly took the drink from his hand and gulped some back while muttering a thanks. Mirage looked over at me while I took another large sip.

"What?"

"What?" Mirage asked back defensively.

"You look like you're about to tell me I need to stop sulking."

"I mean you said it," Mirage said with a grin. I sighed,

"Fine," I stood up off the couch. "I'll go be social." Mirage chuckled again and stood up with me. I decided to follow him into the kitchen where a few of the legends were waiting for the last of the food to finish cooking and awkwardly positioned myself leaning against a counter.

"Aye, kid!" Gibraltar exclaimed when he saw me. "How's it going?" I forced a grin,

"I'm alright."

"Excited for the match tomorrow?" I nodded a few times,

"Yeah, it'll be uh," I paused remembering who was on my team. "Interesting." The man laughed a little,

"Well don't expect it to go the same way as last time!" he laughed again, "I won't be so easy to take down!" I couldn't help but grin a little,

"Yeah well, this time I won't be as," I paused, trying to think of the right word all while noticing a few of the others were listening into our conversation. "Idiotic like last time." Gibraltar laughed again, a deep laugh and some of the other legends in the kitchen laughed as well.

"This time we'll remember to look up," Bangalore said with a smirk on her face.

"If you even see me that is," I replied, matching her level of smugness which got a small laugh out of her. A timer on the oven went off before anyone else had the chance to say anything else and everyone made their way over to the table. As we all sat down it was now visible that Bloodhound wasn't here as there was one empty placemat. I was hoping that no one was going to say anything, feeling that they already sensed some tension but I forgot that Pathfinder had a tendency to point out the obvious.

"We cannot eat yet!" he exclaimed, as if he too, was going to be eating. "We are still missing Bloodhound! It would be rude to start without them." He added, as if Bloodhound would eat while they were here as well.

"Oh, uh," Mirage cut in. "They're not going to make it tonight."

"Are they okay?" Pathfinder asked, his screen turning to a frowny face.

"I'm sure they're fine!" Mirage exclaimed. I looked around at some of the other faces around the table to see their reactions.

"Sly, you spent a lot of time with them recently," Lifeline asked. "Did they seem okay?" I felt myself gulp.

"Uh, yeah." I thought for a second, trying to think of something that would change the topic away from the time I spent at Bloodhound's. "Yeah they probably just got caught up cleaning what they caught today or something."

"Bloodhound hunts for their food?" Bangalore questioned. I cursed at myself in my head for not realizing I instead opened it up for more conversation. I took a bite of my food and nodded.

"They usually spent the day hunting," I said between chews. "Does that surprise you?" I asked, hoping to deflect any further questions. Bangalore shook her head,

"I guess it doesn't." It fell silent among the table as everyone took a second to eat their food. I glanced over to Mirage across the table and tried to get him to strike up a different conversation. However, I could see him and Octane making googly eyes at each other and once again the conversation was back on me.

"So what's their house like?" Wattson piped up, sounding genuinely curious.

"Pretty normal, I guess." I took another big bite of my food and the table fell silent again, everyone's eyes on me while I chewed. I glanced back over to Mirage and this time was able to make eye contact with him. I gave him a small nod, hoping he would get the message but simply mouthed the word 'what' back over to me. I gave him a more stern look and he quickly got the message.

"So Octane and I have some news!" He blurted out. All eyes now turned to him and I sighed in relief.

"If the news is that the two of you are dating, we know," Bangalore stated, causing a few other people to laugh. Mirage and Octane both started trying to defend themselves and I decided to take that moment to get up and go get some air. I walked outside to the deck and put my arms on the rails before putting my head in my hands.

"How did I get involved in all of this?" I muttered under my breath.

"Life has an interesting way of doing that," a voice said from behind me. I spun around and saw Caustic leaning up against the side of the house. My face flushed red, embarrassed that I had been caught sneaking away from the party to go mope around outside. "Something happened between you and Bloodhound," Caustic stated a second later.

"What?!" I said, probably a little too quickly. Even though he was in the shadows I could see Caustic raise his eyebrows. "How do you even know?!"

"You seem to forget you are talking to the man who goes into the arena simply to observe." I let out a small laugh,

"I guess you're right." It went quiet between the two of us. "So what? You come out here to give me relationship advice?" I finally said with a grin on my face. I thought I heard Caustic scoff,

"Whoever's bed you are chasing means little to me," he stated simply, causing me to choke on my own spit. "I came to give you these," he spoke before I had the chance to reply to the previous comment. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small container of pills. "For your anxiety." I hesitantly took the bottle from his hand and began to examine it. The label on the side made them look legit.

"How did you even get these?" I asked, trying to make out what was in the pills. They didn't seem too different from the ones they had back before I was frozen.

"I have a supply in case I need them aga-" Caustic quickly cut himself off, something I had never seen him do before. He coughed awkwardly, "Take one a day. With food." And with that statement he started walking back inside.

"Hey Caustic!" I called after him. He stopped and spun around to face me. "Thank you." Caustic nodded,

"Don't think because of this I will go easy on you in the arena tomorrow." I grinned again, a real grin this time.

"I would expect nothing less." 


	51. Chapter 51

This time the limo ride to the arena felt a lot different than my last champion game. Last time I was anxious about all the people going to be watching me and my performance in the games. This time I was anxious about the fact that Bloodhound was sitting in the seat right beside me and hadn't had more than three words to say to me. Luckily Mirage was a good buffer and was rambling on about something while he fixed his hair in the camera on his cell phone.

"How do I look?" he finally asked.

"Like an idiot," I said with a smirk, recalling our last champion match.

"At least I'm not the one in a kids costume," he replied back, smiling as well. "We all remember the plan?" Mirage asked a second later. I nodded,

"Wattson's team is landing at Bunker to look for information for me and Wraith. We're going into the buildings across from them and towards Cascades to hopefully keep a fight away from them." The night before we had planned out how we were going to go about making the champion game seem less suspicious in terms of looking for our information on who in the IMC experimented on Wraith and I. Since Wattson had the best cover story for digging around in the servers we decided it would be best if only one team would be looking for these. However, some of the lesser known legends had started picking up on our plans, at least according to the social media Mirage loved to scour and we had a suspicion that some of them may try to use it to get a jump on us. That way if we were somewhat close to where Wattson was hacking we could keep any fights away from her. The limo pulled up to the red carpet and Mirage looked over at me and then to Bloodhound.

"We ready?" he asked. I nodded and took a deep breath, getting ready to put on an act. Mirage got out of the car first and held the door open for Bloodhound and I and then put an arm around each of our shoulders to guide us through the reporters. My stomach was starting to feel uneasy as all the cameras around me were flashing and lots of people were yelling my name. I took another deep breath and let Mirage keep guiding me until we were face to face with the reporter that we had to talk to.

"Sly, Bloodhound, and Mirage!" the reporter exclaimed in an over exaggerated tone. "How are we doing today?"

"Doing great!" Mirage replied back. "I think I can speak for all of us when I say we are excited for today's match!" I held back the urge I had to smack Mirage and instead kept smiling at the cameras.

"And Sly," the reporter said turning to me. "Do you feel like you're ready for a match this big after you took a few weeks off?"

"Absolutely!" I exclaimed, trying to mimic Mirage's and the reporter's excited tone. "I think I'm a lot more prepared than I was for the last champion game that's for sure! I even have a few more tricks up my sleeve!" This caused the reporter to laugh,

"Well I can't wait to see them!" and with that statement we took off, Mirage still guiding into the buildings.

"Tricks up your sleeve?" Mirage asked once we were out of the way of the cameras. I flashed him a grin before I put my mask over my head.

"You'll see." Mirage tilted my head. "What? I had some time to myself this week since no one wanted to train and worked out a few strategies!"

"Do you not think it useful to inform your teammates of these strategies?" Bloodhound asked, speaking up for the first time since we had entered the limo.

"Do you not think it useful to train with your team?" I quipped back before actually thinking about the words I spoke. I was glad I had the mask on my face so they couldn't see the fact that I felt bad about that statement and took off to get my respawn. We loaded onto our ship with the competition and took a spot beside Wattson's team which was made up of her, Octane, and Bangalore. As we neared the jump point, I looked over at Wattson and she grinned while giving me a thumbs up. Her team was going to be jumping first and as they made their way to the exit of the ship Mirage grabbed Octane and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. I saw Octane blush under his mask and I couldn't help but roll my eyes.

"We ready to go?" Mirage asked a second later, having watched his boyfriend jump off. I nodded and together the three of us jumped, heading towards the river outside Bunker. We split off as we neared the ground, each of us taking a different building to look for loot. I managed to grab myself a flatline and a blue body shield before running back outside to see a team firing at the doors of Bunker. Since I was the closest I made the rash decision to start shooting at that team to try and get them away from Wattson's team. A plan that worked far better in my head as a second later I had all three firing at me while my teammates were still across the river.

"I may have made a mistake," I said calmly into my coms as I retreated back into my building.

"Ya think?!" Mirage yelled back. I heard him jump onto the zipline that lead to my building and looked down on my map to see Bloodhound almost here as well. I took that time to crawl up onto the roof of the first floor of the building, aiming my Flatline through the door. A second later it swung open and an enemy ran in. Sure enough they hadn't been expecting me to be sitting on the roof and luckily they didn't have a body shield either. Their body hit the ground and the announcer declared first blood just as the second teammate ran in.

However, just as the second ran in, Mirage had entered through the other door on the bottom floor and having acquired a peacekeeper, the next was down two shots later. I reloaded my Flatline as the third was just about to enter the house however a blur ran into them, tackling to the ground. I watched as Bloodhound used their axe to finish the last member.

"Did you not find a gun or-?" I started asking as they turned back to the house, now covered in blood. I also saw a longbow around their shoulder. "Just wanted to be dramatic I guess," I muttered, answering my own question.

"Grab some loot," they said, ignoring the words I had just spoken. "There is another team up on the hill."

"No doubt they heard us down here," Mirage mumbled. I quickly grabbed a second gun, an Eva-8 and a couple healing supplies to throw into my bag. When I was done I looked at my two team members and then out the window to see the other team starting to make their way to bunker rather than towards us.

"Want to see something fun?" I asked, reaching into my pockets. I pulled out a small square shaped device and held it up. "It'll make one hell of a distraction."

"Is that a grenade?!" Mirage exclaimed. "You know you can't bring your own in here!" he said harshly, lowering his tone.

"Relax," I said as I aimed a throw to the buildings across the river. "I got it approved." I hit the button to turn on the device and tossed it up onto the deck of the buildings higher up and grinned. A second later nothing had happened and both Mirage and Bloodhound looked over at me, dumbfounded.

"Now what?!" Mirage exclaimed. I held up a finger and reached into my pocket to pull out a small remote. I hit the play button and a second later the song _Highway to Hell_ by ACDC started blasting out of the small speaker I had tossed. As the first guitar riffs started going neither Bloodhound or Mirage looked away from me, with the same look on their faces. "Okay, there's no way that's-" I nudged Mirage towards the back window pointed at the team just about to enter Bunker spinning around, guns aimed at the higher up buildings. They started slowly walking towards them. "Well I'll be damned."

By the time the first chorus was just finishing they nearly made their way towards where the speaker was. One of them bent down and picked up the speaker, holding it up to their teammates just as Bloodhound fired a shot on their Longbow, landing a perfect headshot, in time with the music as it played into the second chorus. The gunshot lining up with the singer's "Yeow!" before diving fully into the chorus. I looked back over at Mirage and grinned again, ear to ear, just as the surviving two teammates started firing down at us.

"See? It was a great plan." 


	52. Chapter 52

"That's the entire plan?!" Mirage yelled back at me. I simply shrugged and got my flatline ready for a fight.

"We need to push now to keep the advantage," Bloodhound said before heading out the door and towards the zip line that would quickly take us to the team. I looked back at Mirage who shrugged and went to follow. I shook my head as I hopped onto the zip line behind the two of them. As we rode up I could hear the sound of Bloodhound attacking. Mirage hopped off the zipline next and started attacking the third teammate out of the squad. By the time I made it up, the entire team was dead. I put my hands on my hips and looked at the mess in front of me.

"Oh, well. Good work team!" I exclaimed, resulting in a glare from both Mirage and Bloodhound. "What?!" I asked as I reached down to pick my little speaker back up, turning off the music. "That was fun! And it was a good song!"

"Got any music on that thing made in the last century?" Mirage asked.

"Do you really think there would be?"

"No," Mirage shook his head. "I suppose I didn't." I was about to say something more when Bloodhound walked between us.

"Eyes to the sky," they said looking upwards. "Care package." I looked over to the ground where we had just ziplined up from and saw the landing zone for a care package.

"Exciting!" I exclaimed. "I've never got to open one of these!" And before either of my teammates could say anything, I jumped on the zip line to go back down and wait.

"You not going to loot?" Mirage called after me.

"Those were all your kills! It would be rude to just take your stuff!"

"She just wants the care package," I heard Bloodhound mutter to Mirage, causing him to laugh.

It was just landing by the time the two of them had looted their kills and I eagerly opened it up.

"A helmet," I said while putting it on my head. "A med kit. And, oh? This is cool!" I grabbed the weapon that was sitting inside care package and held it up.

"Is that an L-Star?!" Mirage exclaimed.

"I have no idea!" I started, "But-"

"Yes." Bloodhound interrupted. "It is an L-Star. There had been talk about adding it into the games."

"Cool!" Mirage replied taking it from my hands.

"Hey! That was mine!" I yelled at Mirage.

"You didn't even know what is was, do you really think you would know how to use it?" I raised my eyebrows,

"Have you used it?" I questioned.

"Uh," Mirage mumbled. "Like once. In a training centre. A few months ago." I laughed.

"I guess that means you can take it if you want Hound," I said but as I looked up I saw that Bloodhound had already started walking away towards the next ring. "Bloodhound?"

"Mirage can keep it," they spoke into the coms. Mirage did a fist pump and I shook my head and went to follow them. Hopefully Watton's team had managed to finish up what they were doing in Bunker as the ring was going to be closing around it in a couple minutes. We made our way along the river, heading towards Cascades before heading even further down towards Repulser, where we predicted the ring was going to close as the game progressed.

"What do you two want to do?" Mirage asked as we got closer, breaking the silence between the three of us. Bloodhound turned around and looked at me, their longbow in hand.

"I will scout out up ahead. You two should check the other ways into the area, see if we can catch anyone running in from the ring."

"Copy that," I said, just loud enough so they could hear. I started walking and Mirage began to follow behind me, humming. I looked over, "Are you actually humming right now?"

"Maybe," he replied with a smirk. I bit back the urge I had to make a snarky reply given the amount of cameras around me. We made our way to the gap between Market and the area under Repulser. "How much you want to bet we can climb up on those bones?" Mirage asked me, looking up. Under my mask I rolled my eyes as I simply stuck myself to the surrounding cliff face.

"Easy for me, you on the other hand?" I said behind me as I scaled my way to the top.

"Oh C'mon!" I wrapped my legs around the one bone and swung down, so that I was hanging upside down and laughed at Mirage. "You could at least boost me up." I sighed and reached down a hand so Mirage could grab it and I pulled him up to where I was sitting. From there he carefully stood up to look around. While he did that I looked back over to where Bloodhound was keeping watch. Like us they had found a position higher up and was scanning the area in front of them. I felt Mirage tap my shoulder, "Nice view from up here, hey?" he said with a smirk. I shook my head and instead gripped my Flatline a little harder, thinking of what to say. Instead, I heard a few shots go off behind us and I spun my head around,

"That was coming from the other side of Market." Mirage nodded,

"See anything Hound?"

"Negative."

"Then let's stay put," Mirage said. "They won't think to look up."

"Like you didn't during that first game?" I quipped.

"Hey!" Mirage started but he saw me laughing. "In hindsight, I may let my ego lead during that fight. But it worked out! You would be dead otherwise! So, really, you should be thanking me." I laughed again, about to reply when I heard a familiar sound of robotic legs. Mirage and I both looked down to see Octane running full speed under us. I saw Mirage grin and he looked over at me, "I got this one." I rolled my eyes as I watched him jump down off the bones chasing after Octane. "For a fast guy," he started. "You're pretty slow!"

"That's the best one you could come up with?" I mumbled in the comms as I watched him trying to use the L-Star, and failing. As I did I noticed that Bangalore and Wattson were following as well, no doubt chasing after their wild teammate. I looked back up to Bloodhound who was trying to get a shot in on Octane, perhaps to save Mirage when I saw them put the gun down and reach for an arc star.

Once Wattson and Bangalore had made it passed me, I jumped down behind them, waiting for Bloodhound to get Octane so that I could surprise these two. Instead, I watched Bloodhound throw the arc star at the same time Wattson put down her interceptor pylon, canceling out the grenade. Octane landed from a jump pad, right into Mirage's face, kicking it a few times.

"Ouch!" I exclaimed with a small laugh as I watched Mirage fall to the ground. The screen on my wrist said that he was still alive, even though he wasn't moving. I was so going to laugh at him for getting kicked in the face after this. I looked back up and saw Bloodhound now standing on their ledge, looking down when Wattson pulled out a Kraber. "Hound-!" I started to shout, but my voice was lost with the echo of the sniper rifle firing, knocking them down.

I quickly ducked back down before Wattson or Bangalore thought to look behind them. I quickly racked my brain for what to do. I had no doubt they were going to be looking for me next. I looked down at my screen. Neither of my teammates were actually dead yet. Though if I didn't get to Bloodhound soon they would be. I looked back at the team that had attacked and notice that Octane had kept running, meaning Wattson and Bangalore had already left to go follow him.

"Okay, okay," I said under my breath. Mirage was still alive, just very unconscious. I had to get to Bloodhound. I jumped down off of where I was hiding and started sprinting over to Bloodhound. They were still in decent cover as they had climbed onto the cliff and it didn't take me long to climb up next to them.

I saw them lying down on the ground, barely moving and for a brief second, I froze.

I couldn't do this again.

I shook my head, they were going to be fine, even if I didn't get them back up this time. I crouched down beside them and hoisted them up so they were leaning up against a rock.They let out a pained noise as I did so.

"Hey," I said as I pulled out a medkit. "You're going to be fine Hound." They shook their head,

"The- the team," they stuttered, fighting for consciousness. I shook my head as I pushed back some of their gear to be able to apply the medkit directly to the kraber wound.

"They're gone. You know Octane can't sit still, ran off after kicking Mirage in the face," I said, trying to keep their attention so they didn't black out on me. "It was quite funny actually." The med kit finished and the wound in their shoulder had mostly closed up. "Can you stand?" I asked, wiping the blood off of my gloves. They nodded and tried to stand but ended up stumbling. I caught them in my arms before they completely fell back over.

"Takk," they mumbled as I helped them gain their balance.

"I got you," I said while wrapping their good arm around my shoulder. "Mirage has a few more syringes, we should be able to get him up and you can have another as well." I kept rambling as I helped them climb down off of the cliff that we were standing on. "You sit," I told Bloodhound, noticing that their balance was only getting worse. I jogged over to Mirage, a large bruise already forming over half of his face. I gave him a slight nudge with my foot. When he didn't budge I kicked him a little harder.

"Five more minutes," he groaned. I kicked him again,

"Not home yet dummy." Mirage groaned even louder as he sat himself up.

"My head," he started. I looked back over at Mirage and saw that his one eye was already swollen shut. I tossed him a syringe and looked back at Bloodhound.

"Heal fast," I told him before going back to them. I had just started to apply another syringe to Bloodhound when all of a sudden we heard an explosion. Louder than a usual grenade.

"Uh, guys?" I asked, looking around.

"Oh that can't be good," I heard Mirage say. I looked to him and then followed his gaze.

"By the gods," Bloodhound said. I finally saw what the explosion was and my mouth fell open.

Repulser was coming down.


	53. Chapter 53

"That can't be good," I mumbled as I watched the tower begin to fall. There was no doubt that it was going to come down right around us. "Yeah we gotta move," I told my team. I looked back at them, neither of my teammates were in the best of shape to be doing much of anything. Bloodhound was still injured from the kraber bullet and Mirage was highly concussed. I grabbed each of them by their arms and started running. At least, the best I could dragging both of them behind me.

The sound of the falling tower behind me, I ran as fast as my feet could take me. The tower was falling fast and there was no way we would be able to outrun it lengthwise. We were running out of the sides. However as it was coming down, I began to realize the tower itself was also quite wide. There was a loud crash as the tower came down right behind our heels. The impact kicked up a large amount of dirt and dust which knocked us all down to the ground again.

I began to cough the dust out of my lungs as I rolled myself over onto my back. Beside me, Mirage was groaning. I then looked over to Bloodhound, who was lying on their face. I rolled myself over onto my back and stuck a hand out to Bloodhound, smacking them a few times lightly till I heard them groan.

"Glad," I coughed again. "You two didn't die." As I spoke I heard the announcer come to life,

"All living legends must return to the dropship." I sat myself up.

"What?" Mirage and Bloodhound slowly eased themselves up as well.

"Yeah I don't think that was supposed to happen," Mirage mumbled as the announcer began to repeat itself, also adding that no more fighting was prohibited. I looked over at him, the entire right side of his face had now turned purple from where his boyfriend had kicked him with his robotic legs. I then look over at Bloodhound, whose wound from the Kraber had opened up again upon them hitting the ground. I was the first to stand up, being in the best condition and held out a hand to Mirage.

"C'mon," I said, pulling him up. However, as I did so, Mirage had begun to heave and I only had a second to jump backwards before he threw up, mostly hitting my shoes. "Dude!" I exclaimed.

"Anyone else really dizzy?" Mirage mumbled, before stumbling back over. I had caught him again and helped ease him back down to the ground. 

"He's concussed," Bloodhound said, trying to stand up. I went over to them and helped them stand up.

"We're out of syringes," I said looking down at myself. I glanced back over to Mirage, "Stay with us Mirage."

"Pssh," he waved an arm out. "I'm f-fine. We nee-need to g-go!"

"That I can agree with," I said as I looked around. I wasn't sure how I was supposed to get an injured Bloodhound and a concussed Mirage out of this place in one piece. "Can you walk?" I asked, looking to Bloodhound. They were clutching their injured arm and nodded weakly. "Okay. Okay, I got Mirage." Carefully, I helped Mirage stand up again and I wrapped one of his arms around my shoulders.

For a brief second I thought that we might be able to make it out of here like this. That was when I heard a high pitched screech coming from overhead. The three of us all looked up.

"What the hell?!" I exclaimed, looking at the creature flying above my head. "Tell me that's not a mini dragon."

"A Flyer," Bloodhound said, carefully taking out their Longbow again as the creature flew closer towards us, still screeching.

"Have these been on this planet the whole time?!"

"The frequencies emitted from towers like Repulser keep them away from civilization," Bloodhound explained. "With that tower down..." they trailed off. The flyer in the sky make a swoop towards us and I could see it baring its teeth. I screamed a little as I jumped out of the way, dragging Mirage with me. Bloodhound fired a shot and hit the flyer in the head, sending it flying to the ground.

"You, you know w-what else that tower, k-kept away?" Mirage stuttered. I squinted my eyes and looked over to Bloodhound.

"The leviathans," I heard them say under their breath. "We need to move." They said speaking up. "Now!" I was about to question what a leviathan looked to where Bloodhound was gazing and saw one of the giant creatures in the water slowly making its way closer to the island. My eyes went wide.

"Those things come on land?!" Bloodhound nodded,

"We need to go," they said. I looked down at the screen on my wrist. Whoever was in control of the games had added different locations on it to where they were going to be sending these emergency ships to take us off of the island.

"There's one landing outside of Market," I said. "That's our closest one." Bloodhound nodded again and I looked back up at the sky where I could see a swarm of those flyer creatures. "Those are herbivores right?" I asked, trying to lighten the mood as the three of us started heading towards Market. Bloodhound looked at me and I could tell even with the mask they did not appreciate the timing of my joke We were moving almost as fast as the Leviathans approaching the island as I had to carry Mirage, who was now drifting off. Bloodhound was moving slow as well on account of their injured shoulder as well as they were still scanning the area with the Longbow.

I felt my stomach doing backflips, clearly none of this was meant to happen and clearly someone had done this on purpose. But why? My mind started racing with thoughts about if it was the IMC attempting to destroy more information. And if it wasn't?

"Sly," Bloodhound interrupted my thoughts. I snapped my head over to them and they nodded up ahead. I followed their gaze and saw a few people up ahead,

"So, we don't shoot them, right?" I asked. Bloodhound nodded

"Sh-shoot them!" Mirage suddenly exclaimed, seeming to be full of energy all of a sudden. I quickly smacked his gun away. I looked back at the people in front of us, they were positioned blocking our way to market. They had their guns out, pointed at us.

"Do, do they know, not to shoot?" I asked. Bloodhound had now raised their longbow at them as well. I looked back at the people. "Hey!" I shouted at them. "We're not going to kill each other right? We need help!" I watched as they slowly put their weapons down and one of the figures began running up to us while a second starting moving a little slower behind. When I could make out who the team was I couldn't help but sigh in relief.

"Amor!" Octane exclaimed as he ran up. Once he was at us he took Mirage out of my arms and lowered him onto the ground. Octane ripped the mask and goggles off of his face

Mirage looked up, saw who it was and grinned.

"Oh, h-hey there," Mirage said, trying to sound casual. "You're cute." With one finger Mirage booped Octane on the nose. Octane looked up at me,

"What happened?!"

"You kicked him in the face!" I exclaimed. Octane's face flushed, embarrassed.

"Well I didn't want to shoot him..."

"Hey rook!" I looked up and Bangalore had already thrown a syringe at me. I caught it and handed it off to Octane who began to apply it to Mirage.

"Do you guys know what happened?" I asked. Bangalore shook her head.

"All I know is that we need to get out of here ASAP."

"Where's Natalie?" Bangalore looked over her shoulder.

"She's alive." I tilted my head, displaying my confusion. "This is her arena and someone's destroying it." I nodded a few times. "She's processing." Bangalore looked over to Bloodhound.

"Surprised you aren't dead after that kraber shot." I could hear Bloodhound chuckle a little under their breath.

"You ran off before you could finish the job." Bangalore grinned a little.

"Well I'm glad. We're going to need you if we're going to make it out of here."

"Ay amigos!" Octane exclaimed from the ground. "Do we have any more heals? That one did nothing!"

"I'm f-fine!" Mirage tried to pipe in.

"We're out." I said.

"Us to." Bangalore added. There were more screeches over our heads and all of us looked up. More flyers. "Octane and Sly, you two get Mirage inside Market to where Wattson is taking cover." Bangalore instructed while swinging around one of rifles. "We'll cover you." I nodded and helped Octane stand Mirage up and the three of us began to hobble towards Market as Bangalore and Bloodhound began opening fire on the flyers which had started swooping down on them.

"You're going to be fine amor," Octane was saying to Mirage as we walked. "We'll get out of here." Mirage mumbled an uh huh as we dragged him inside. Wattson had set up a few of her fences and since I was right beside Octane I was able to slip through with him. Octane guided us into one of the side rooms where Wattson was sitting on the ground, head in her lap. She looked up briefly when she saw us but quickly put her head back down. "We'll watch Mirage," Octane said to me. "You go help." I nodded again and stood up as Octane threw me his tag to get through the fences.

I made a dash for back outside where the flyer heard had now increased and Bangalore and Bloodhound were fighting two each. I swung my gun around and started aiming at the flying creatures as well, taking down one that was above Bangalore. She looked over and grinned as we then focused on the next.

"We need to get inside!" Bangalore yelled over the sound of the wailing flyers. I was standing closest to the door.

"Go!" I yelled, "I'll cover!" The two of them started running towards me as I unloaded another magazine of my flatline into one of the creatures. I was so focused on keeping one of them back that I hardly noticed the second flying closer and closer to me. I only noticed when Bloodhound tackled me to the ground seconds before the flyer bit into me. Only now, the flyer bit into them. "Bloodhound!" I yelled as the bird tried to grab another hold of them. I wrapped my arms around their waist so it couldn't drag them off as Bangalore came back out with her weapon. She hit the bird in the head and it let go of Bloodhound and quickly she reached down and dragged the two of us in, slamming the giant door shut behind us. "Bloodhound!" I screamed again as they were pulled off of me.

The flyer had left multiple wounds in them and there was a lot of blood. Bangalore was trying to access the damage and she pushed me back when I tried to help.

"Go signal down the ship!" she demanded, taking off one of Bloodhound's layers to wrap around the wound. I nodded frantically and grabbed a thermite off of the ground and climbed up to the roof, praying the flyers had gone. I could hear the ship above and I activated the thermite as if it was a flare and tossed it onto the ground in front of me. The ship was about to fly over but I saw it stop and begin to turn around. I waved my arms like a manic at it and I realized I had been crying under my mask.

"Everyone get up here!" I yelled down the zip line. "We're getting out of here!"


	54. Chapter 54

Everything started to blur together once I was on the drop ship taking us off of the island. I recall someone helping get me onto the ship while someone else got the others. The ship had a few people that worked with Apex who had jumped off the ship and began to look around for other people on the ground. I remembered seeing them drag a few dead bodies onto the ship before we took off again, however, my eyes were still focused on Bloodhound.

The ship had gotten crowded as it stopped at a few other points to pick up legends, both alive and dead however none of it mattered in this moment. Bloodhound's head was in my lap, their breathing getting more and more shallow as the wound on their side was still bleeding from the large flyer that bit into them. I wanted nothing more than to be able to take their helmet off of their head, to place my forehead on theirs.

Instead I focused on trying to keep pressure on the wound as we flew back towards the main island. Once the ship landed everything started getting rushed again. People flooded into the small ship and escorting us off, people taking the injured to get help or the dead to be revived. It was clear no one had been expecting this. Since I was deemed okay, I had to watch helplessly as the officials dragged away Bloodhound, putting them onto a stretcher.

"Bloodhound!" I called out as arms were put in front of me, blocking me from following wherever they were taking them. Big doors were slammed shut in my face and I slowly turned around, walking a few steps before freezing. I was in a wide open room. Everything around me was moving. There was yelling, crying, and the sound of alarms. People were running past me in every direction. I tried looking around for a face I recognized but I had lost Mirage when they took Bloodhound off of the ship.

I was glad that I still somehow had my mask on my face as I felt my eyes beginning to water. My feet were glued to the floor as people were pushing past me, not seeming to notice I was standing there. The room had begun to blur into one and my head had started to spin. This couldn't be happening. This wasn't supposed to happen.

"Friend!" a cheerful voice suddenly exclaimed out of the blue. I blinked my eyes a couple times and when they refocused I saw who was in front of me,

"Pathfinder?!" I practically laughed. "You-you're okay!"

"Of course I am!" he replied back, screen still with a smiley face.

"Do-do you know what happened?"

"Someone blew up Repulser!"

"Yeah, b-but after that," I was stuttering my words. "T-they took away Bloodhound and I can't find M-mirage and the others were dead and-" I looked back up to Pathfinder who now had a sad face on his chest.

"I don't know friend." Without realizing what I had been doing I wrapped my arms around the robot. A second later he was hugging me back. I felt myself holding back a sob,

"Are they going to be okay?" I asked, head buried in the yellow scarf he had around his neck.

"I think so. These people are very smart!" I nodded a few times, still leaning into the robot. "Now, why don't we go try to find somewhere to sit, we are standing in the middle of everything here!" I nodded again and let go of Pathfinder, taking off my mask and wiping my eyes before any more of the tears had a chance to fall. I followed closely behind Pathfinder, not wanting to lose the only familiar face in the building. He led me over to a side hallway which had a lot less people running through and a couple chairs for us to sit in, which I did very eagerly.

Once sitting I put my head into my hands, trying to wrap my mind around what had just happened. Neither Pathfinder or I spoke for a few minutes, although I was glad to have someone sitting beside me. It was a few minutes later when I heard someone running up to us.

"Path, Sly!" I lifted my head up and saw Bangalore standing in front of us. "Thank God you're okay."

"Bangalore!" I nearly jumped out of my seat, surely she would know what was going on. "What's happening? Do you know where Hound or Mirage are? What about the people still in the arena? Wh-"

"Slow down there Rook," Bangalore put a hand on my shoulder to stop me from rambling. I nodded and took a deep breath.

"They should have taken your teammates to some of the respawn rooms to fix them up."

"Okay, right, yeah, what about-?"

"They're still trying to get everyone out of the arena. With the respawns on a time limit they're working on getting the already dead ones out."

"But, but the dragons, and dinosaur things!" Bangalore when about to answer when someone else came up behind us.

"Anita, there you are." It was Gibraltar. "They're looking for volunteers to head back onto the island. Figured you would be helpful down there. Path, you to."

"Right, of course." Bangalore replied.

"I can come to!" I piped up, not wanting to feel useless just sitting here. I tried to walk over but Bangalore held out her arm and stopped me.

"We need someone to stay here. I need you to tell Ajay I'm okay when she wakes up, they were just reviving her, I don't want her to worry." I nodded a few more times.

"Right...."

"I also need you to let me know if you Caustic kicking around," Gibraltar piped up. "I killed him back inside and I need him to be okay as well." I nodded again.

"Okay, yeah, stay safe." And with that statement the three of them all took off down the hallway, leaving me alone once again. Instinctively, my brain wanted to go right back to worrying. I ran a hand through my hair. "Okay, okay. It's fine." I said out loud to myself. "We'll just go find Bloodhound and Mirage. How hard can that be?"

The medical building on the Apex compound was rather large. Specific floors were laid out for the process of respawning and others for recovering. There wasn't in terms of fixing up injrings as usually they only dealt with the dead. Now that they were trying to keep people from dying, as the respawns were starting to time out, the building had turned upside down. I began wandering the floors where they had the respawn recovery rooms, where you would wake up after being revived. There were some players milling about like I was and others in the beds, even though not all of them had died. All of the officials were in too much of a hurry to answer any of my questions and the rest of the other people who had been in the match were looking as confused as I was.

"Have you guys seen Mirage?" I started asking as I walked past some of them. "Bloodhound?" I was met with mostly mumbles of nos and sorrys, or asking if I had seen anyone they were looking for. I kept wandering, trying to look into the rooms, feeling the tears starting to form in my eyes again. I was just about to give up and find a chair to sit in when I saw an unknown figure before me.

"Bloodhound and Mirage are in room four fifty two," a thick Korean accent spoke. I looked up to the voice to thank it, but the person was already walking away from me, all I could see was the white and green of his jacket.

"Four fifty two," I repeated to myself, already forgetting about the person. I quickly bounded up another set of stairs, nearly sprinting down the hallways. "Four fifty two," I muttered again as I glanced at the room numbers. Finally I found it and I swung the door open. "Oh my god," I heard myself say as I walked in. Both Bloodhound and Mirage were lying in different beds, neither of them conscious.

"Sly!" I looked over behind Mirage's bed and saw Octane jumping up. "I-I, tried to find you," he stuttered. "Everything was moving so quickly, which normally would be fine but-"

"It's okay. I'm here now," I interrupted him. He nodded a few times. "Are they okay?" I asked, motioning to Mirage and Hound. Octane nodded,

"They gave Mirage some strong painkillers and said he would be sleeping for a while, but he'll be okay."

"And Bloodhound?"

"Needed to be revived. They bled out or something from the flyer bite." My eyes went wide.

"They're okay though, right!?"

"Oh of course! They said something about the respawn process not being equipped for flyer bites so but they patched them up the best they could. They'll be fine in a couple of days." I felt myself sigh in relief. There was another chair in the room so I plopped myself down, feeling better knowing they were safe.

"Have you heard anything about Ajay?" Octane asked, fiddling with his mask that was now around his neck.

I quickly brought Octane up to speed on what I knew, how some legends were going back to look for the others, despite the fact that those giant creatures were now on the island, crushing everything under their feet. Once I finished Octane ran off to go check on Ajay and to not leave her alone, entrusting me with being here when Mirage and Bloodhound woke up.

I took the chair I was sitting it and slid it up against Bloodhound's bed. They were still in most of their gear, only missing the big jacket that Bangalore had taken off to use to try and slow the bleeding. They were still covered in blood and I found myself taking off their gloves which were soaking red. As I did so I instinctively laced my fingers through theirs. When I realized what I was doing I attempted to let go but I felt them grip my hand, stopping me. I felt myself grinning for the first time since the tower had gone down.

"You're okay," I said calmingly, waiting for them to wake up fully. "Take your time." I remained holding their hand, wishing that I could take their mask off. We sat in silence for a few minutes like this until they fully regained consciousness. When they did they didn't make an effort to let go of my hand and instead carefully sat up. "How are you feeling?" I asked, finally breaking the silence.

"Betra," they replied a second later, moving to put their other hand on top of mine. It fell silent again between us. "I'm sorry," Bloodhound said nearly a minute later. I titled my head, confused. "For treating you as I did these past few days." I slowly nodded.

"It's fine." Bloodhound shook their head.

"It wasn't fair," their voice was quiet. "These feelings are... new, to me."

"Hound-"

"But after what happened today, when I saw that flyer about to bite you..." they trailed off and looked up at me, our eyes locking even through their mask. They brought up one of their hands and placed in under my chin. "I realized I don't want to lose you."

"You know, you could've told me that, instead of being killed by a flyer." I heard Bloodhound chuckle a little. They went to take their hand off of my chin but I reached up with my free hand and grabbed it. We locked eyes again and without hesitating I reached up and pulled their helmet, just enough to lift it to their nose. They didn't protest and took a hand to wrap around my head, pulling me closer. My heart was beating a million miles an hour as I inched myself closer, wishing I could take the rest of the helmet off. After a few seconds, Bloodhound pulled back a little,

"Does this mean you forgive me?" I rolled my eyes and pulled them closer into another kiss. I felt them smile as they leant into it. It was another few seconds before there was anything spoken, and when it was, it wasn't me or Bloodhound.

"Oh c'mon," Mirage groaned from his bed all while throwing his pillow at us. "Get a room!"


	55. Chapter 55

It was a couple more hours before they let us all go back home. Our room slowly grew the crowd as when each of the legends got back they wanted to check in with the rest of us. It started with Octavio coming back to check on Mirage. He was followed by Ajay who then attracted Bangalore who had Pathfinder and Moaka with her. Shortly after Caustic made his way into the room and was greeted with a giant bear hug from Gibraltar.

Bloodhound and Mirage were the most injured of everyone, both of them still in bed as the small room began to fill up. Octane had jumped into onto Mirage's bed, lying beside him and I had awkwardly sat myself on the edge of Bloodhound's to give my chair to someone else. I was surprised when Hound still wanted to hold my hand, despite the amount of legends in the room. A few of them had looked at us but thankfully they kept their words to themselves. Wattson was the last to walk into the room where we all had gathered.

"The respawns are timed out. They pulled everyone still alive off of the island," she said, between sniffles; clear she had been crying. It was silent in the room.

"How many?" Bloodhound was the first to ask.

"Eight." I felt my heart get heavy. A champion game was supposed to have no real casualties, and yet...

"Who?" Ajay was next to ask. Natalie rattled off a few names, only a few were ones I recognized. Part of me began to feel bad for not getting to know the other legends I was fighting against. Another part began to feel bad that I was glad it was none of my friends that had permanently died. I felt Bloodhound squeeze my hand and I pulled myself out of my thoughts, squeezing their hand back.

"Can we go home yet?" I finally asked, after a few more minutes of silence.

"Soon. They're just trying to clear the press." I nodded, from what I had heard the EMP that took the tower down had also shut down all of the cameras, meaning the public had no idea what had happened next. I thought about the legends who had died for good and how everyone would react. Their fans, their friends, family...

"We're going to get going," Bangalore said, interrupting my thoughts and the silence that had fell upon the room. She grabbed Ajay's hand and the two of them made their way towards the door. "Get some rest everyone."

Slowly the crowd in the room began to dwindle until it was just the four of us again, still waiting on the doctors go ahead for Bloodhound and Mirage to go home.

"What do you think happens next?" I asked to no one in particular. "With the games?"

"Maybe they'll finally give us a vacation," Mirage piped up.

"Boring," his boyfriend chipped in.

"Oh c'mon! We could do some sight seeing!"

"In Solace?"

"I could use a vacation," I interrupted.

"Didn't you just have one?" Mirage asked. I shrugged and looked over to Bloodhound.

"Maybe this time we could have a Star Wars marathon."

"Star Wars?" they questioned.

"Oh yeah, you're going to love it. This time we should go to my place though, Mirage's T.V is a lot bigger and it's a rule you have to watch Star Wars on the biggest T.V possible." I heard Bloodhound laugh a little under their helmet.

"Is it now?"

"Oh yeah. Darth Vadar deserves the whole screen."

~~~~~~

Mirage and Octane decided to come with us back to Mirage's after a long discussion about the cleanness of Octane's place. I had even convinced Mirage to give the first Star Wars movie a try, all of us wanting to take our minds off of what had happened in the arena today.

We were just walking up to the house when we saw someone sitting on the front step to Mirage's house, who jumped up when she saw us walking up. 

"Wraith?" Mirage was the first to say.

"Thank God," she said running up to us, giving Mirage and then me a quick hug. "What happened? I was watching the game and-"

"You were worried about us?" Mirage interrupted, grinning smugly.

"Don't flatter yourself," Wraith replied, rolling her eyes. "Was it the IMC?"

"We don't know," I said as the five of us now walked inside the house.

"Well who else would want to destroy what's inside the arena?"

"You'd be surprised felegi," Bloodhound said, piping into the conversation. "There's a lot of people who would like to see the games fall." Wraith opened her mouth to say something but I saw her eyes drift down to Bloodhound's hand, which was still holding mine.

"Is this a thing now?" I felt my face flush red,

"Uh,"

"Yes," Bloodhound said.

"How long have I been gone?"

~~~~~~~

The next few days were spent doing nothing other than watching T.V. Wraith ended up staying as we watched the first movie and her, Mirage, and Octane liked it enough that they stayed to watch the rest of the marathon. There was no news from any of the Apex officials so the five of us lived in our own little world for those few days, none of us wanting to interact with the world outside.

They still had no idea who had taken down the tower. All we knew was that the games were going to be on hold until they could figure out what to do next. There was some talk of them fixing the arena, while others talked about them creating a new one all together. Whatever happened, it wa going to be a fair amount of time before there were any more games.

I couldn't help but feel a little sad about the fact that this had gotten in the way of Wraith's and my search for answers about those who froze us, and what they had done to us after. Whether it had actually been the IMC that planned the attack of not, someone had succeeded in delaying our efforts, putting both Wraith and I at unease, with the thought about the IMC making another attempt at attacking us seem more inevitable.

It was a couple more days before those worries were gone, having asked Bangalore and Pathfinder to keep checking the IMC channels for updates on what they wanted with us. Well it was still unclear if they had orchestrated the attack on Repulser, they seemed pleased with the fact that Wraith and I were no longer digging around in their files. It seemed like we had actually caught a break for once.

Once Mirage was feeling better and the marathon had ended, him and Octane had taken off, claiming to be wanting to take advantage of the break from the games. Last I had heard Mirage had even started working back at his bar again, seeming more bored than Octane was with the lack of activity.

Bloodhound and I had yet to leave each others side, though once they were feeling better we also had started trying to find activities to pass the time. They had even insisted we have an official date night. Turns out they were a lot more romantic than they appeared, planning a whole picnic in their favourite spot in the woods. And for the first time in a long time, I was happy. Truly happy.

Then the phone rang.

"Hey kid!" Mirage exclaimed. "Did you hear the news? We're moving to another planet!"


	56. Chapter 56

"You've got to be kidding," I mumbled looking at the ship in front of us. "They expect _us_ to _all_ live in this, for a week?!" I was standing with a few of my bags in hand, looking a the ship that was going to be taking us to the new planet, to the new arena. Part of me was sad to be leaving behind Solace and the comfort of Mirage's home I had been living in for so long. The other part was excited to be able to go visit another planet, see what else was out there in the universe. None of it I wouldn't have seen if I wasn't frozen. Suddenly I felt a hand wrap around my waist.

"Only for a week Elskan," Bloodhound chuckled. "Then we'll be on Talos, in our own, private rooms." I frowned a little,

"I still think putting all of the legends into one apartment complex is also a terrible idea." Bloodhound laughed softly. "I'm serious! The eleven of us all living on like three floors? We won't even make it off the spaceship alive!"

"Not eleven there kid," Mirage said, walking up to where Bloodhound and I were standing. I tilted my head and Mirage shrugged. "Eleven's not a good number to make even teams with their new idea of different tiered legends. But at least we're in the top," he added with a grin. What Mirage said was true, with the games being on pause for a bit the officials were trying to change up the games, make them more interesting so they could draw in a bigger audience. They decided that if they could put some of the fan favorites, and those who were good enough, in a different tier and randomize teams from there, claiming it would make for some interesting matches. Luckily everyone from our little group of legends were the ones to make it to this level as once they wanted one of us, everyone else said they wouldn't go unless the rest were there.

"So who's the new legend?" I asked. Mirage shrugged again,

"Someone by the name of Crypto." I squinted my eyes.

"Who?" I looked over to Bloodhound to see if they knew but they shook their head.

"I don't think anyone's heard of him, but if he's here he must be good." I sighed and looked back at the ship that was going to be moving us to a different planet, now looking like they were boarding our friends. Apparently our group was being moved in a different ship than anyone else, supposedly one that was going to be nicer, but I had a feeling it was still going to feel like we were in the trunk of a car for a week. I reached down and began to pick back up all of my things that I was bringing with me.

"Let me help," Bloodhound said, reaching down to grab one of the largest bags.

"Are you really only bringing that much?" I asked them, looking at the single bag thrown around their shoulder.

"I only pack what is needed." I rolled my eyes.

"Well I hope another change of clothes is needed at least. If you start to stink I think I'm going to have to call it," I teased. Bloodhound shook their head as they grabbed another one of my bags. Now that they were carrying more, Arthur flew off of their shoulder and landed on mine, making me grin again.

"You two are weird," Mirage stated, interrupting the momentary silence that had fallen on the three of us. I looked over at him to defend Bloodhound and I but he had already taken off towards the ship.

"Shall we?" Bloodhound asked, looking over at me. I nodded and the two of us began to follow Mirage towards were we would be living for the next week or so. Some of the other legends were there already who greeted us with waves. We walked up the ramp to the inside of the ship and my eyes widened a little when I saw the scene.

There was a wide open room with twelve side rooms going around it, each with a banner featuring one of our names and pictures. The little rooms had doors that reminded me of garage doors, rather than actual doors. To the sides where there weren't rooms there was a bit of a common area with a few couches. In the middle of the room there was a large four sided screen on the roof and below, four panels that looked like they would extend downwards, out of the ship.

"Are we supposed to be dropping out of here?!" I asked.

"Must be," Bloodhound responded, examining the floor as well, placing a hand on one of the railings that stood in the middle of the wide open space. There was only room in between Bloodhound and I, belonging to Wraith. On the other side of my room was Pathfinder and I decided that neither of my neighbours would be so bad. We walked up to my room and I grabbed the garage door and swung it up, reaving what was inside. I felt myself frown.

"This reminds me of my college dorm," I mumbled. Looking at the single bed and the small desk in the corner.

"Very quaint," Bloodhound said, setting my bags down on the ground. "I will leave you to unpack." They said a second later, lifting up their mask briefly to give me a quick kiss on the cheek, turning my face red. Bloodhound left my room and as they did I noticed Wraith walking past, who raised her eyebrows when she saw who left my room.

I quickly rolled down my door.

It didn't take me long to put out some of my things, arranging the few decorations I had brought in my room. I had a couple posters I had gotten printed for movies I liked to watch as well as a couple old memes so that I could explain them to Mirage, so I decided to hang them along with my posters. I hung up my Spider-Man suit that I wore into the area on the side of the desk and put a Spider-Man blanket I had been given by a fan that I lay overtop of all of the other blankets on the bed, completing the look.

By the time I left my room, the ship was almost ready to leave Solace. I looked around at the other few legends, Bloodhound's and Mirage's doors both still closed with them inside, and I decided to sit down on some of the couches with a few of the others who were already there.

"Excited for a new planet?" Gibraltar asked when I sat down. I nodded a few times.

"Yeah! I, uh, haven't really gotten to explore that many planets yet." This caused him to grin.

"I've never been to Talos either." Bangalore piped up. "But I'm sure it'll be fine."

"As long as there's no giant dinosaurs or mini dragons, I think I'll be okay," I said, half joking. Ajay shook her head,

"Giant frost bears." My eyes went wide as I debated whether or not she was joking or not. Before I had the chance to ask I saw everyone's heads turn towards the twelfth room on the ship, the room that belonged to the new legend, the door now opening for the first time since I had gotten on the ship; everyone watching carefully at who was going to walk out.

He briefly looked over at where the rest of us were sitting and quickly looked away, walking faster towards the bathroom. I squinted my eyes as I looked at him, he seemed vaguely familiar but I couldn't figure out why. He had a large metal plate covering his chin and jawline, making me think that I didn't actually know him, I'm sure I would remember meeting someone with metal attached to their face.

"Anyone know who he is?" Bangalore asked once he was out of the room.

"Never heard of him," Wattson responded, still looking at the door he had came out of.

"I don't know him either!" Pathfinder chimed in.

"Another mystery legend then," Bangalore said, causing a few of us to nod. "Has anyone seen him play?" I shook my head, and so did a couple other legends. This caused Bangalore to frown. "I wonder who he is..." she trailed off, leaving a few of us still looking over.

"Why don't we just check amigo?" Octane asked, standing from the wall he had been leaning against. Before any of us had the chance to say something Octane had already made his way over to the garage door leading to the new guys room.

"Uh, Octane?" I asked, being the first to clue in to what he was about to do. "You probably shouldn't-"

"Silva!" Ajay exclaimed in a harsh whisper as Octane slowly began to roll up the door.

"What?! He's not even here! It'll be-"

"Excuse me," Crypto spoke, stepping out into the area, causing Octane to quickly let go of the door, sending it slamming back down to the ground, nearly landing it on his metal feet. I couldn't help but snicker as I watched Octane fake a smile.

"¡Hola!" he laughed, offering a small wave. "I thought, er, that that was my room. T-they all look the same," he stuttered. The new legend simply glared at him and Octane gulped, quickly walking back towards where the rest of us were sitting. The rest of us kept our eyes on Crypto wondering what he was going to do next. He saw us all looking and kept the glare on his face, sending a very clear message, and opened the door to his room, quickly getting in and shutting the door so none of us could look inside. A dead silence hung in the air until finally, Gibraltar spoke,

"Well ain't he peachy!" 


	57. Chapter 57

"Goodnight Elskan," Bloodhound said to me as I crept out the door to their room. The lights on the ship were dim now that it was the middle of the night, the rest of the legends either sleeping or in their rooms, doors closed. I didn't think it had gotten as late as it did, Bloodhound and I hadn't even been doing anything, just chatting while they slowly set up their room in a way they wanted. Turns out they had actually packed a lot more than the initial few bags and had sent a few boxes to the ship prior to move in day.

Their room consisted of items that reminded me of their home, which I guess is why they had brought it. I had decided to go back to my room to sleep, considering they had brought a hammock to sleep in instead of the provided bed. We also were unsure where some of the other legends stood on our relationship, in terms of knowing if we were a thing or not. Not wanting to cause any unnecessary drama while we were forced to live in a confined space for a week, we decided to keep it quiet, at least for now.

The ship was quiet as I made my way back from the washroom, the only sound that could be heard was the hum of the ship flying through space. I was pretty sure everyone on the ship was fast asleep, and I found myself yawning as I approached my room, eyes practically closed already.

I was almost back to my room when all of a sudden there was something under my feet, which made an angry sound as I tripped over it, falling flat on my face. I groaned as I rolled over, trying to figure out what the hell I had fallen on when a saw a small creature on the ground, not seeming overly disturbed by the fact I had just tripped over it. I blinked a few times looking at it, trying to figure out what it was. Then it meowed.

"A cat?!" I exclaimed quietly to myself, sitting up further. I scooched myself closer towards it, holding a hand out and making a few soft clicks with my tongue to get the cats attention. "Who the hell has a-" I cut myself as a set of footprints approached me and looked up to see who it was. "New guy?" He looked down at me, still sitting on the ground, trying to pet the cat. "D-did you see that?" I asked, face turning red. He nodded once. I looked over to the cat. "Is this your?" He nodded again and I felt myself cringe. "I-I'm sorry, I didn't see her, I didn't mean to-"

"It's okay," he interrupted. "She can be very quiet." He held a hand down to me to help me up off of the floor. As I took it I began to realize that I had seen the white and green jacket before.

"I do know you!" I exclaimed, brushing off my pants.

"You do?" It sounded like he was almost concerned.

"Yeah you were there after the tower blew, told me where Mirage and Bloodhound were!"

"Oh," he sighed. "Right. Sorry about the cat," he said, bending down to scoop the orange creature into his arms. "I didn't realize she had gotten out of my room." I grinned,

"That's okay, cats are like that." Crypto offered me a small grin and it fell silent. "Well," I started. "I think I'm going to-"

"Did you ever find what you were looking for?" he suddenly interrupted. I blinked a few times, taken a bit aback by the question.

"What?"

"You were looking for something in the arena. Files. In the IMC terminals."

"You have no proof-" Crypto raised his eyebrows and I sighed. "No. We didn't. We were close but then..." I trailed off.

"Then someone destroyed the arena," he finished for me. I nodded. "I'm sorry." I shrugged,

"Not your fault. Unless you were the one who blew it up," I said with a laugh. He said nothing. "Right. Well, I'm sure we'll find something eventually, it just might be a little harder now, but if I'm being honest I kind of wanted a break from searching anyway. It just makes me think more about what happened, so I guess justice can wait." I finished, sounding a little sad. The new legend looked as if he wanted to say something, but his lips remained shut. "Well I am off to bed, it was nice meeting you officially," I said with a grin. "The cat as well." I said, giving the cat in his arms a few scratches on her head.

"Frazzles," he said, looking down at the cat. I raised my eyebrows as I looked between the cat and the man holding her. "She was my sister's." He quickly explained, looking a little embarrassed. I laughed a little,

"Whatever you say man. I'll see you around."

"We'll see about that." I stopped myself from walking back to my room.

"Oh c'mon! Not _all_ of us are _that_ bad."

"You don't sound very confident with that." I shrugged again,

"I'm just saying! They're pretty welcoming, I mean I've only been here for like half a year and most of them are like family to me."

"I don't have a family," he stated. "And I'm not looking for a new one."

"Neither was I," I said with a small grin. "Have a good night Crypto." And with that I took off, back to my room, closing the garage door as quietly as I could. I got ready for bed and thought about the man I had just met. Something seemed off about him but I quickly shook the thought away, all of us had something off about us.

~~~~~~~

The next morning I was explaining my late night adventures to a few of the legends who were sitting out in the common area.

"He has a cat?!" Mirage exclaimed.

"Frazzles."

"You're telling me that super edgy, hardass looking guy, has a cat named _Frazzles_?" I shrugged.

"I don't know what to tell you," I said, taking another bite of my cereal. "He seems very secretive."

"You're telling me," Mirage mumbled. I looked over to Bloodhound who had their arms crossed in front of them. They caught me looking.

"If that cat gets anywhere close to Arthur I will not hesitate to slatra," they mumbled under their breath. I laughed a little,

"Oh-kay there. Let's try not to murder anyone just yet?"

"No promises." It fell silent again.

"What were ya doing up so late anyway?" Ajay suddenly asked. I felt my face go red,

"I uh, was just going to the washroom." Not a total lie.

"I'm going to check on Arthur," Bloodhound cut in, standing up from the table. Ajay looked between the two of us, a small grin spreading across her face.

"Who do you think he is?" I asked suddenly, wanting to change the topic before she said anything more. "This Crypto guy?"

"Beats me," Ajay replied. "Could be anyon'." I nodded.

"So how long have you and Bloodhound been a thing?" Bangalore suddenly asked. My eyes went wide,

"Wha-" I looked over at Mirage, "How many people have you told?!" Mirage faked a grin,

"Well I only told Octane." I looked to Octane.

"I only told Ajay."

"And I only told 'Nita and Natalie." I put a hand on my face.

"So everyone knows?"

"That's a safe assumption," Mirage said, half with a grin. I lowered my head onto the table, face first.

"This is going to be a long week, isn't it?" 


	58. Chapter 58

The week was indeed long. Time seemed to pass by very slowly given the only thing to do on the ship was sit around and talk to each other. By the second day the tension between the legends had never felt higher, everyone seeming to be fed up with each other. By the third day the first fight had broken out over someone using all of the hot water on the ship, almost resulting in physical violence when they found out it was a certain couple who had used the water while creating a sanitary problem in the bathroom we all shared. Mirage had been too embarrassed to show his face for the next two days following.

Day four Octane went poking around into different rooms and soon discovered that Caustic had brought all of his gas onto the ship, as well as loose chemicals he used to make it. This time an apex official had to step in and now between the hours of 8 A.M to 9 P.M the doors to the rooms had to stay open to both make sure Caustic's room didn't get filled with gas (again) and to make sure no one was plotting anything against the others. At least, in the hours we were awake.

On day five the kitchen lit on fire as Gibraltar had given Pathfinder a recipe but the recipe given had the oven temperature in Fahrenheit and Pathfinder assumed it was in celsius, putting the food in the oven at nearly double the heat. Now everyone was banned from the kitchen, resulting in us having to eat pre-packaged food.

Now we were one day away from our destination and I was eager to get off of the ship, even though I enjoyed spending time with some of my friends, when they weren't arguing with each other. I had figured that we would make for an excellent sitcom if it was still 2019. It also meant that I got to spend more time with Bloodhound, though I could tell they were feeling the most cooped up on the ship. I could tell they were itching to get back outside; they didn't like being idle. In the past few days the only time I could get them to sit still instead of bouncing in their seat, was the mornings. They had spent the past few nights in my dorm since I refused to share the hammock they had instead of a bed and it was in the mornings that they were slow to wake up.

Bloodhound's head lay on my chest as I combed my fingers through their hair, their eyes still closed, though I could tell from their breathing that they were awake; both of us basking in the silence on the ship that would only last for another few minutes when everyone woke up. As if almost on cue there came a loud crash from outside, followed by a Spanish curse word, causing Bloodhound to flinch and nearly jump out of bed.

"Hey, it's okay," I said calmly, coaxing them back down. "Just Octane being an idiot." Bloodhound sighed and looked up at me, grinning as I carefully pushed back the hair from their eyes.

"Only one more day einn í viðbót,..." they sighed again, rolling over and now pulling me onto their chest.

"I'm excited to see Talos," I said. "Pathfinder was showing me pictures the other day, it looks really pretty."

"It is. You're going to love it Elskan."

"And what about you?"

"What about me?"

"Are you going to love it?" I heard Bloodhound click their tongue.

"I-" they started, but quickly stopped. I turned my head around to look at them, suddenly feeling a little worried. "I'm nervous." They finally said. Now I grinned a little,

"That's okay, it's normal to be nervous about moving to a new place." Bloodhound didn't say anything. "And besides, we'll be living in the same building, so we'll be able to see each other without-"

"Talos is not new to me," they interrupted. I spun my head around again to look at them, sitting up a little,

"What?" I heard them take a deep breath and I could tell that they felt unsure about telling me this.

"I was born on Talos. I grew up there."

"Really?" They nodded.

"When I was still young, one of the IMC drilling sites nearby malfunctioned, creating a blast freeze that destroyed a lot. It killed my parents." I felt my heart sink,

"Bloodhound... I had no idea I-"

"It's okay Elskan. I hadn't told you. But you are important to me, you deserve to know." I grinned a little,

"We don't have to talk about it," I said. "If you don't want to." I felt Hound shrug.

"I moved in with my Uncle after that, in a small village," they smiled softly. "He was an interesting man, you would've liked him." I felt myself smile a little. "I left for the games a few years after he died." I nodded,

"Did you ever go back?" I asked. Bloodhound shook their head.

"My place is in the games. I am blessed with the gifts of the hunt, not using them would be... offensive to the gods." I nodded again. "You find that odd."

"No, not really. It makes sense." Bloodhound offered me a small smile. "Do you want to go back?" Their smile turned into a frown.

"Yes, there are still a few people there it would be nice to see... but I'm unsure, they do not even know I am coming back to Talos."

"How come?" Bloodhound sighed,

"ég er áhyggjufullur," they muttered under their breath. I tilted my head to display my confusion. "I am afraid I will no longer be welcome by my people. They are rather," Bloodhound sighed, pondering over their word choice. "Against a lot of the aspects of the games, the technology used. I don't think they would want me, especially after everything Artur fought for..." they trailed off, closing their eyes. I bit the bottom of my lip, trying to think of something to say.

"Hound..."

"It's okay," they said gently, lacing their fingers through mine. I lay my head back down on their shoulder, closing my eyes again. Above us a loud alarm buzzed, signifying to the ship that it was now 8 A.M and our doors were to be opened. I groaned, cuddling up even closer to Bloodhound, yanking the covers back up. "It's time to wake Elskan," Bloodhound said with a small chuckle. I shook my head,

"Five more minutes."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"No, no Path, you're not supposed to tell us which cards you-" I put my hand on my head as the robot spun his deck around,

"I have a six! Do you need one of those?"

"Oh! Oh! I do!" Octane piped up, reaching over the table to take the card, laying down a set of sixes. "What else do you have?" I heard a small laugh behind me,

"I see cards is going well." Mirage laughed. I shot him a glare, causing him to laugh again.

"I mean, it's keeping them distracted and out of everyone's hair." Mirage pulled up a chair and sat himself between me and Octane.

"I got a game!" he announced. Attention shifted to him and he was handed the deck of cards, which he picked up and showed off the front card. "Okay. So, when you see a black card you say smoke, when you see red you say fire."

"You can't possibly think they'll fall for-" I started, recalling when I had taught him what the game was.

"Smoke!" Octane shouted. I put my hand back on my head.

"Smoke!" Octane and Pathfinder said in unison as Mirage changed the cards. "Fire!" Mirage grinned wickedly as he threw the entire deck in the faces of the other two. Before either of them had the chance to react, the lights in the ship flashed red.

"Attention," the similar announcer voice declared. "Approaching drop zone in thirty minutes."

"Wait what?!" I was one of many to exclaim. I looked to the door of our area of the ship which lead to the other corridors and saw a few of the Apex officials walking out, carrying boxes that contained the respawn needles.

"You've got to be kidding," Mirage grumbled as they explained that they really were about to send us into the first match in this new area in twenty-eight minutes where they planned to test out the new randomized team making system they had set up. I huffed as I stood up to go and change into my suit, I figured it wouldn't be worth it protesting and besides, I was very ready to get off of this ship.

A few minutes later everyone was ready to go, now lounging around near where the doors, or rather the floor, was going to open.

"What do you think the map will be like?" I asked Bloodhound who was sharpening one of their knives.

"I don't know," Bloodhound hummed. "Depends where on the planet we are." I frowned, about to say something more when all of a sudden there was a loud commotion outside Bloodhound's room. Both of us stuck our heads out to see the new guy, Crypto, practically tackling Mirage. My eyes went wide as I took a step forward, about to interview when Gibraltar laughed,

"Kid's got some moves!" he chuckled, seeming to ease the tension. The lights in the ship flashed again, announcing we were about to drop. The screens above the floor flashed displaying our teams and I saw that I was to be paired with Wraith and Wattson. I bounded over to them and stood on the platform, giving them each a smile before I pulled my mask over my head. Wattson clapped her hands together as the ship started lowering the platforms so we could jump,

"This is going to be fun!"


	59. Chapter 59

With the new contract deal, they had created, the Apex Games now had signed legends. I had also heard they were introducing a new system for new players in the game, rather than anyone joining like I had done, they were going to be tested and only the best would be allowed into the games. Currently, me and my friends were seen as the highest tier of legends, they signed a bunch of others who had won a match or two in their time making the match we were about to play a champion game of sorts, but from this point on, I guess that was going to be the norm, with only signed players in the ring. 

"So, uh," I started, looking at the ground below me. "Where do you guys want to go?" I looked around and saw that the rest of the people going to be fighting were also getting ready to jump as well. 

"What about..." Wattson was looking down at the map on her wristband. "The Dome? That sounds fun!" I looked over at the suggested location and saw that the ground was glowing,

"That's not lava is it?" I asked, suddenly feeling really nervous.

"Sounds good to me," Wraith cut in. "Let's go." And with that, she jumped off of the ship. I realized after Wattson jumped I was going to have to follow them. I took a deep breath and jumped. As we soared closer towards the location called The Dome I began to make out what was in front of us.

"Oh God that really is lava isn't it?!" I exclaimed. There were three buildings spread out across the area and we each landed at one. Once I hit the ground I took a second to look over at the literal pools of lava. "Is no one else concerned about the lava?!"

"Have you never seen lava before?" Wattson asked through the coms.

"You have?!" I heard Natalie laugh and I shook my head as I began to walk through the building. I found myself an Alternator, an Eva-8, and a blue body shield by the time I made it to the other side.

"We have a team here," Wraith interrupted my thoughts about what it would feel like to melt in a pool of lava.

"Great," I mumbled, swinging open the door to the other side. "Why don't we just push them into the lava?" I asked, half joking. I could hear Wraith engaging one of the enemies in combat so I quickly sprinted over, helping her take down the second member of the team.

"One left," she said as she picked up a sniper rifle from one of the bodies.

"I think I see them!" Wattson exclaimed. "He is almost-" But before she had the chance to finish I had already swung open the door to the building, finding myself face to face with the last remaining member, hitting him in the face with the door. I stood there shocked for a second as he recoiled backwards, down the stairs.

"Hello there," I said, snapping back into attention. I bounded down the two stairs leading up to the building as he tried to make a grab for his gun. I kicked it out of the way while aiming my Eva-8, blasting him in the chest once he no longer had a gun. He started falling and before I knew it he was nearing the edge of the lava. My instincts took over and the next thing I knew I had kicked him again, pushing him over the ledge. It only took a second for his body to sink into the lava, his screams muffling a second after that. My mouth fell open when I realized what I had just done.

"Where'd he go?" Wraith asked, stepping outside of the building she had been in. Without moving I pointed my finger towards the lava. Wraith raised her eyebrows.

"I _this is Spartaed_ him..."

"You what?" Natalie asked, now caught up with us.

"Uh..." I tried to think of any logical explanation for what I had just said. "Nevermind," I quickly added. "That guy will still be able to respawn, right?"

"We need to get moving," Wraith interrupted. "The ring is closing soon, looks like it is a bit of a walk." I looked down at the map on the small device on my wrist and saw the edge of the ring a place called Fuel Depo.

"This place is huge," I mumbled, scanning the rest of the map.

"We can head through this Lava City," Natalie said, looking at her map as well. "Then maybe we can pick up some spare loot as we run." Wraith nodded and we took off again, the ring wasn't closing just yet but we still jogged, wanting to stay ahead of it. As we neared the buildings in Lava City I noticed that it didn't look looted. Part of me wanted to be able to spend time exploring the layouts of the new buildings to try and get used to this new arena, but I didn't want to fall behind my team who didn't look as thrilled as I was about the new planet.

We had just reached the edge of the city, nearing a miniature lava bubble like the one covering dome when Wraith stopped moving.

"Someone's here," she said, eyes silver. I tilted my head confused but a second later I heard the familiar sound of robotic legs running closer to us. "He's separated from his team."

"Best we take him out without letting them know where we are," Natalie said. Wraith grinned,

"I have an idea," she said looking over to Wattson, eyebrows raised, causing her to smile.

"We can try!"

"Wait, what?" I asked, suddenly feeling left out.

"Let's get into position," Wraith said, ignoring the question.

"Wait, what am _I_ doing?" I asked again. Both Wraith and Wattson stopped what they were doing to look at me.

"Well, we need to get his attention..." Wraith suggested, causing me to grin a little. "Get him near the lava." I nodded and pulled the small speaker out of my pocket, glad I remembered to bring it in.

"What song are we thinking?" I asked through the coms. Upon getting no response I loaded up what I assumed to be an appropriate one and tossed the speaker into position, waiting for my cue to press play.

"Now Sly," Wraith instructed a few seconds later. My grin grew even wider as I started the music.

_"Somebody once told me the world was gonna roll me, I ain't the sharpest tool in the shed"_

I realized after hitting play that my choice of Allstar by Smash Mouth would not have gotten the same reaction as it would have back in my time and frowned at how my comedic genius was going to be overlooked.

I looked ahead to where Wraith and Wattson had run off to, now seeing Octane running around the lava, trying to figure out where the music was coming from. A second later I saw two portals open, Wraith coming out of one, Wattson the second, each kicking him and ultimately pushing him into the lava. My eyes went wide and a second later I found myself laughing as Wraith and Wattson high-fived.

"That was badass!" I exclaimed, running forward to pick up my speaker.

"This is a good song!" Wattson said to me, bobbing her head along to the chorus. I laughed a little at her statement as I shut off the music while Wraith rolled her eyes.

"Attention," the announcer boomed overhead. "Ring closing." I looked over at my two teammates.

"Well, the ring starts comin' and it don't stop comin', head to the circle and I hit the ground running..." 


	60. Chapter 60

We ended up being stuck in the ring, having realized the map was even bigger than it appeared on the screen. I was still humming All Star as we each took a second to use syringes, getting rid of the pain from the ring.

"Where to next?" I asked while waiting for the others, poking my head into some of the buildings of Fuel Depo. Part of me was enjoying the new map and all of the new areas to explore. "This area looks picked clean."

"We need to get to Train Yard next," Wraith said, eying the map. "Looks like there's a tunnel here we can cut through." I nodded and the three of us took off again towards the new area.

"So," I started as we walked, not wanting to be in silence. "Are trains like, still a thing?" Both Wattson and Wraith looked at me, eyebrows raised. "Well like, we're going into Train Yard which implies to me that yes, you still have trains but like, trains are old technology, like way before me even." Natalie laughed a little.

"We still have trains. Although I imagine they're quite different than the trains you know." I nodded.

"That's cool. I liked trains. Well sometimes. Sometimes they would block up the road and you would be stuck in traffic for like-"

"Sly," Wraith interrupted me. I snapped my head over to her and saw her holding a finger to her lips, nodding with her head towards the tunnel we were about to walk into.

"Sorry," I mumbled. She made some signals with her hands that I understood to mean that there was a full team inside and that we were going to try to get the drop on them.

"Patching a tunnel," Wraith whispered after showing the plan. I gulped and watched her run into the tunnel, purple streaks flying out behind her, though she didn't make a sound as she ran. A second later the portal opened and the sounds of gunfire had already started on the other side. Wattson walked through the portal first, I followed a second later.

Having had less experience phasing through portals between dimensions, I made it to the other side feeling a little nauseated. I stumbled forward trying to walk while the world was spinning and nearly face planted on the ground. I felt a bullet whiz past my head and I quickly snapped myself back to attention, running to take cover behind a small box.

I poked my head around the corner and saw Wattson and Wraith under fire, though it looked like one of the enemies was down already. I ran forward, Alternator in hand to go help when I saw one of the last two enemies pull out a grenade.

"Look out!" I yelled as it landed at the feet of my teammates. Wraith disappeared into her void to avoid it, but Wattson found herself in the middle of the blast. Without thinking I turned myself invisible and ran behind the two enemies before the smoke from the grenade fully disappeared.

I held the trigger down on my weapon and unloaded the mag into the last two. One of them had already lost their shields and dropped fast. The second was down by the time he turned around and saw me standing there.

"Go team!" I exclaimed, scooping up a purple body shield from one of the people I had killed. I got no response. "Team?"

"Over here," Wraith replied. I jogged back over to where she was, remembering the grenade.

"Oh shit." Wraith had avoided the majority of the blast, however, was still down on the ground. Wattson on the other hand... "I'm coming Wraith." I knelt down in front of her with a medkit and began applying it, but Wraith shook her head.

"Save it for Nat," she weakly said. I gulped and looked down at the screen on my wrist, confirming that our third was killed.

"It's just us." Wraith cursed as I finished healing her. "We'll see her after."

"We need to get moving," Wraith said, ignoring my comment. "Rings closing in thirty."

"Right. That thing."

We took a second to loot the team we had killed before making our way up a small set of stairs leading out of the tunnel.

"We can make it if we cut through-"

"Is that an actual train?!" I cut Wraith off. "Oh my god. There's a train! Look!"

"Yes, very cool. Now-"

"It's hovering!" I gasped, watching the train get closer to where we were standing. "Are we allowed to get on the train?" I asked as it slowed to a stop in front of us.

"I would assume so. The ring's closing so we-"

"Can we take the train?!" Wraith looked over at me, eyebrows raised. "Please? It's going into the ring!" She didn't say anything. "Look how fun it looks! And then we don't need to run! We could save our energy for the next fight!"

"Sly," Wraith started.

"Pretty please?" As I said that the train sounded a whistle, signifying it was about to take off. I looked at Wraith, grinning under my mask.

"Fine."

"Yes!" I eagerly jumped onto one of the carts on the train just as it started to move. I ran to the front of the train and looked out. "This is so cool!" I looked back at Wraith, who did not look as excited as I felt about being on a train. I leant up against the side of the train. "C'mon, you've got to admit that it's at least, a little cool."

"It makes us a target." And with that she took off, walking towards the back of the train, gun still out

"A cool target!" I called out after her, jogging to catch up with her. "People will see us and go 'wow. Look at that cool team on the train not having to run. I wish that were me. Trains are awesome.'"

"That's exactly what they're going to say when they see us here." I laughed a little.

"This thing really moves though hey?" Wraith nodded once before looking back out one of the windows in the back car where we were now sitting.

"Looks like it is coming to a stop inside this city," Wraith explained. "The next ring is going to a place called refinery, it also looks like the train stops there as well."

"Are you suggesting we stay on the train?!"

"Wouldn't hurt to beat some of the teams to the next ring."

"Yes!" The train pulled to a stop in the middle of a city called Capitol, like Wraith had said and the two of us ducked down from the windows, trying not to draw attention to ourselves as we waited for the train to start moving again. "They should've added a train to the canyon," I whispered over to Wraith. "That would've been so convenient."

"Maybe you should suggest it to them."

"Maybe I should! They are rebuilding it, right? Once they get the dinosaurs out? Maybe they should also add a-"

"Shh," Wraith interrupted just as the train started moving again. I decided it be best for me to shut my mouth before saying what I thought the next best feature of the arena could be and peaked my head to where Wraith was looking "I think someone got on," she said a second later.

"Well I don't think we can exactly get off this thing right now," I said motioning to the fast-moving ground below us. Wraith shook her head. "How many?"

"At least one. Maybe more." Wraith pulled out her assault rifle and started slowly moving towards the front car, me following suit.

"It's Mirage!" I excitedly whispered to Wraith. This is perfect I can-" I was interrupted as I felt something metal across my face, knocking me backwards. I tasted blood in my mouth as I looked to see Crypto using his drone to take Wraith out, before he looked back at me, now pulling out a Wingman. "New guy?" The last thing I saw was him smirking before he pulled the trigger. 


	61. Chapter 61

When I woke up, I was in my own respawn room. Confused, I sat myself up, checked myself over once to ensure that there was still no bullet in my skull, and jumped out of bed. I stuck my head outside my door and saw a series of doors, each with our legend names and a banner pose outside.

"Personal respawn rooms, pretty cool hey?" I spun my head to see Mirage at the end of the hallway looking over at me. "Too bad I didn't get to test mine out yet." I rolled my eyes as I walked up to him,

"Seemed like your teammate was doing all the work back there."

"I had already called dibs on killing you!"

"You were to slow," I looked behind me to see Crypto, a smug smile on his face. Mirage looked like he was about to protest, opening his mouth, and then closing it a few times over. I was trying to think of something to say to save him when I myself was saved by Octane running out into the hallway.

"Amor!" he exclaimed, running up to Mirage. "Did you see that?! I melted into a pool of lava! It was awesome!" Mirage's eyes went wide.

"Uh, s-sounds great? Super awesome babe." Octane kept rambling about all the other cool things he saw in the arena just as some of the other legends started leaving their rooms as well.

"How did the rest of the match go?" Wattson asked walking up to me, Wraith beside her. Wraith shook her head,

"It was going good until someone had the idea to get on the train."

"You agreed to it!" I defended.

"Wait, wait," Octane interrupted. "There was a train?!" We nodded. "And I missed it?! Me?!"

"I really liked that Epicenter place," Gibraltar piped up.

"Yeah what was that?" Bangalore asked.

"Some old IMC drilling site that blew up a while ago," Gibraltar explained.

"Wait what?" I asked, suddenly feeling nervous.

"Yeah, it's all ice now, killed Hound's team in there." I felt myself gulp, remembering what Bloodhound had said to me about what had happened to them on this planet.

"I'll be back," I said, taking off towards their respawn room. The door was still closed so I gently knocked before sticking my head inside.

"Hey," I said, walking in. They were sitting up in their bed, feet dangling off. They saw me walk in and looked up, though with the mask on their head I had little to go on in terms of their facial expression. I plunked myself down beside them on the bed. "How did your match go?" I heard them sigh under their helmet as they leant their head against my shoulder. "That good hey?" I mumbled, causing them to laugh a little, but it quickly turned into another sigh. "I'm sorry Hound." I felt them shake their head.

"Það er það sem það er," they said quietly. I grinned a little,

"You realize I still can't speak your language right?"

"þess vegna er þetta skemmtilegt." I rolled my eyes and gently elbowed their side,

"Whatever you say. But we should probably get going," I said. "They are moving us into our apartments right away.

~~~~~~~~~~

The apartment complex was quite large. They had built it to be able to fit hundreds of legends as well as those competing in the qualifiers to get into the games. The first player from those would be joining in about a month and after that, they said we would have a steady stream of new legends joining the ranks.

Since me and my friends were considered higher tier legends we were given the upper floors. With six rooms on each floor, we currently held the top two floors. Thankfully the rooms were assigned in order of arrival and since Bloodhound and I were right beside each other, we were neighbours. Octane and Mirage were right behind us as well as Wraith and Pathfinder. A floor I could live with.

We made our way up the long elevator trip to the top floor. Outside of the elevators sat a small couch with a couple of chairs as the hallway extended over to our rooms. Bloodhound trailed behind me as we went into my place first. It was a small one-bedroom with a tiny kitchen and bathroom. The walls were painted a shade grey lighter than the floors, matching the colour scheme of the kitchen, which was also, yet another shade of grey.

"How lovely," I sarcastically mumbled as I poked my head around. They had already moved some of my boxes off of the dropship so that I would be able to make this place look somewhat livable. I then followed Bloodhound to their unit, which looked identical, only the set up was in reverse, meaning our bedrooms were one wall away from each other. "So..." I asked as Hound set down their bags. "What do you want to do? I heard Mirage and Octane talking about setting up some snacks somewhere,"

"I think I may retire for the night." I looked over at the clock, about to question the earliness of the night but I could tell from their shoulders that they were stressed.

"Okay," I nodded. "Do you want me to stay?" They shook their head.

"You go have fun." I raised my eyebrows. "I'm okay," they said, seeming to have read my mind. I found myself chewing on my lower lip, I could tell that the day definitely had taken a toll on them but I didn't want to add to their stress. I could tell they needed some time to themselves.

"Okay. Yeah," I finally said. "Text me if you need anything." They nodded again and I took my leave, walking back out into the main area where I saw Octane, Mirage, and Pathfinder trying to turn on the T.V. They were busy arguing so I quickly slipped into my own room. I looked at the bare grey walls and sighed. I was going to need a miracle to make this place look livable.

~~~~~~~

After only a few minutes of me unpacking, there was a quick knock on the door.

  
Friend Sly!" Pathfinder exclaimed as soon I swung the door open. "I need to know your favourite breakfast food!"

"What?" I laughed, taken aback by the question.

"I need to know your favourite breakfast food!" he repeated.

"Yeah, got that," I laughed a little. "Why?"

"Well, since I only need a few hours every night to charge myself, I see it only fitting that I can make breakfast for everyone in the mornings! I want to make everyone's favourite foods at least once! And I do not know yours!" I slowly nodded.

"Right..."

"So, what is your favourite breakfast food?" I thought for a second.

"You guys still have Poptarts?" Pathfinder's screen displayed a question mark. "Right, yeah, of course not, uhh-"

"Perhaps if you can tell me what a Poptart is I can make it!" I laughed again,

"I don't think you can really... make Poptarts. They just kind of were there."

"But if it is your favourite-"

"Pancakes are fine," I interrupted. "With chocolate chips."

~~~~~~~~

  
Five minutes later there was another knock on my door.

"Friend Sly!" Pathfinder exclaimed.

"Yes Path?"

"Are these Poptarts?" he asked, displaying a picture on his screen. "I have just dug through the entire commercial food archive from 2019 and this is what I found!" I nodded, trying to process what he had just said.

"Those are Poptarts alright."

"Great!"

"How did you get the entire-" I tried to ask, but he had already taken off.

~~~~~~~~

Four minutes later there was another knock.

"Friend Sly!"

"What now?"

"I found a recipe for homemade Poptarts!" I sighed,

"That's great buddy."

~~~~~~

Five minutes after that there was another knock on the door.

"Pathfinder I swear to god if you have one more question about Poptarts-" I started while opening the door. Only as I opened it up I quickly realized it was not Pathfinder. "Uh... hello." The man at my door smiled.

"Poptarts?" he questioned. I was pretty sure that I had seen him before, but I couldn't quite place a name.

"Yeah, there were a... nevermind. Can I help you?" He smiled again, making the dark circles under his eyes more visible, and stuck out a hand,

"I am Jacob Young." I reached out and awkwardly shook it, still unsure of who he was. "We've only ever spoken through emails."

"Oh!" I exclaimed, now shaking his hand with a little more enthusiasm. "PR guy!" He grinned again, although this one looked more forced. "What can I do for you?" I asked, swinging my door open, inviting him in.

"Well, with the change of how the games are operating, I saw it fit to introduce myself to the rest of the legends I had not personally met before," he said as he stepped in. "That and I had a few questions for you."

"Should I be worried?" I asked, suddenly feeling a little nervous. He shook his head,

"Not yet." I grinned and motioned for him to sit down at the small table in the unit. "Usually I would have these meetings in my office but," he sighed. "With the move, I have yet to receive one." I nodded a few times. "First, I'm sure you have heard by now that with all of the changes in the games we are going to be..." he trailed off as if looking for the right words. "Advertising, a little bit more. Almost like how some legends have been sponsored in the past by other companies. For promotion and whatnot"

"Okay...?"

"You are one of the few they picked to be part of the new promotions."

"Really?! Me?" He nodded.

"If you are willing. I am aware that some of the legends refuse to-"

"I would love to!"

"You don't want to know more?" I shrugged,

"What isn't it just going to be a few photo ops and like, new outfits for me to wear in the games?" 

"And a few commercials."

"See! It sounds fun!"

"Right... Okay, well, my next thing. I have heard rumours that you are dating a fellow legend," he stated.

"What?! Who told you-"

"I hear a lot of things, Sly. While there are no regulations among dating each other, it would be in your best interest to tell me who so that when it inevitably makes its way to the press, it will go smoother."

"Oh..." I thought for a second. "Well, I can't really tell you without consulting, uh, can I get back to you on that?" Jacob nodded once,

"Just... tell me," he sighed again. "Tell me it's not Mirage. I can't deal with another Mirage sex scandal right now." My eyes went wide.

"I wouldn't- Wait, wait, wait. _Another_?!" I looked at Jacob and saw a blank face staring back. "Right, well, it's not Mirage. I promise you that." I heard Jacob sigh in relief.

"Okay. Good. I just have one rule when it comes to legends dating."

"Alright."

"Whatever you do," he shook his head. "Just, not in the arena. Please." I squinted my eyes.

"Not what?"

"If you want to hold hands, or, or a quick kiss, that's fine... just nothing more. For the love of God." I tilted my head a little,

"I'm sorry, I still don't know what you are getting at-"

"No fucking!" he suddenly exclaimed, causing me to flinch. "Okay? Everything must remain in their respective pants!" I blinked a few times, trying to process.

"Is... has that... does that actually happen?" Jacob looked at me and from the look in his eyes, I could tell he was being quite serious. "You've seen some shit, haven't you?" Jacob sighed again and took a deep breath, regaining his composure.

"Do you think you can handle that, Sly?"

"What happens if I can't?" I smirked. He quickly sent me a glare that I knew not to mess with. I held my hands up. "Kidding. Kidding. All sexy bits will remain covered at all times." He raised his eyebrows. "Promise."

"Good."

"I just want to ask," I went on. "Now that you've piqued my interest. Is, is that like, a common, thing to happen in there?"

"You'd be surprised," he deadpanned.

"W- was that the Mirage... sex scandal?"

"One of them." My eyes went wide again.

"One?!" I shook my head. "And you see all of it, don't you?" He nodded again. "You poor soul." He didn't say anything and instead stood up from the table.

"Please get back to me on who you are seeing at your earliest convenience," he said holding a hand out again. I shook it.

"Yup. Good luck with the whole office thing. Hopefully, you at least got a place to sleep, god knows you need some." Jacob left my apartment and a minute later I went out into the common area to find Mirage sitting on the couch with a few other legends.

"I see you met Young," Mirage said. "I don't think that guy likes me very much. Wonder why..."


	62. Chapter 62

After spending an hour tossing and turning in my bed, trying to fall asleep, I got out of bed to get a drink of water. However, while lying back down I processed to smack my head on the wall, rather than plopping it against a pillow and creating a loud bang. I cursed and clutched my head, sinking down into the pillows when I heard a few knocking sounds on the wall. Confused, I titled my head before realizing that Bloodhound's room was right on the other side of my wall. I leant back up and knocked a few times as well. They knocked again and a second later my phone lit up with a text message.

_My door is unlocked._

I grinned as I read it, swinging my feet off of my bed and heading towards the hallway, still rubbing my head. The lights were all off in the common area as everyone else had gone to bed as well. I quietly opened the door to Hound's room and slipped inside.

"Couldn't sleep?" I asked upon walking into their room. They were sitting up against the wall while Arthur was asleep in his cage, even though the door to it was open. Bloodhound shook their head as I crawled into bed beside them. "Same here." They lied down as well, wrapping an arm around me as I put my head on their chest. "You wanna talk about it?"

"Not particularly," they said, voice gentle.

"Okay, we don't have to." I closed my eyes and shifted myself so that I could drape my arm over their stomach. "I met the PR guy today," I said a second later, not quite ready to go to sleep.

"Is that so?"

"Mmhmm. He wants me to tell him who I'm dating to avoid another sex scandal, like Mirage." This caused Bloodhound to chuckle a little.

"He has had a few of those."

"You knew about that too? And no one told me?!" Bloodhound laughed a little again,

"I was involved in one of them," they said calmly. I immediately sat up, eyes wide.

"You what?!" This caused Bloodhound to laugh suddenly,

"No!" they exclaimed, laughing again, having realized how that sentence was worded. "Not, not like that." I raised an eyebrow. "You really think that little of me Elskan?" they laughed, gently pushing me back down into bed. "It was, rather, my fault that it made it onto the television."

"Oh?" Bloodhound nodded again, still laughing a little.

"He was injured so I assigned our third, someone who is not in the games anymore, the task to watch over him while I scouted ahead and look for supplies, so they had kept the cameras on me."

"Okay?" I propped myself up onto my elbows, listening closely.

"Well, when I got back... I, er, heard some odd sounds coming from inside..." I put a hand over my mouth, covering my grin.

"You didn't...?"

"They had turned off their coms so I had just assumed that they were in trouble and-" I burst out laughing.

"You did!" I laughed. "Oh that must've been awful!" I said while still laughing.

"It's not that funny," they tried to interrupt.

"Oh but it is!" I saw them grimace at the thought. "You poor thing..." I flopped back down, this time on top of them, laughing into their chest. After a few seconds, I regained my composure. "Okay... okay. I'm sorry for laughing."

"It was... kind of funny I suppose." I looked up and saw them grinning as well. "Not for Mirage though..." I lay my head back down,

"The whole Outlands must've seen his..." I giggled, "Oh the poor man," I said, still laughing a little.

"He was pretty traumatized," Bloodhound said, still with a bit of humour in their voice. I sighed as I shifted myself into a comfortable position, finally starting to feel the effects of exhaustion overtake me. "Next time you see him," Bloodhound went on, falling asleep as well. "Ask him about the Pumpkin incident."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When I woke up the next morning, the bed was empty. I sat up and noticed a small note hanging off of Arthur's empty birdcage reading,

_Went exploring. Back soon. -BH_

There was a small heart by their signature. I grinned as I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. There was an interesting smell coming from the hallway so I pulled on a pair of Hound's sweats and went to see what it was.

"Friend Sly!" Pathfinder exclaimed the second I swung the door open. "I made-" he stopped himself mid-sentence and his screen changed to a question mark. "That is not your room," he stated. I nodded a couple of times.

"What about it?"

"Elliott wasn't in his room either! He was in Octavio's!"

"Yes, well Mirage and Octane are dating. Like me and Hound." The robot slowly nodded.

"People who are dating have sleepovers?" he questioned. "No wonder they were so loud!" I squinted my eyes.

"Path... what do you think people do at sleepovers?"

"Pillow fights!"

"Right. Right. Of course."

"Were they not... having a pillow fight? There was a lot of jumping on the bed!"

"So what did you make for breakfast?" I asked, really wanting to change the topic before we got any further.

"I made Pop-Tarts!"

"You did?" The robot nodded and eagerly led me over to the table where there was a small plate. On it sat a couple of things that did have a bit of a resemblance to Pop-Tarts. I picked one up and carefully examined it, turning it over in my fingers. "How long did these take to make Path?" I asked, eyeing the attention to detail.

"Only a couple of hours!" My eyes went wide. "Are you going to try it?" I nodded and took a deep breath, trying not to get my hopes up that he had actually recreated my favourite childhood breakfast. I took a bite.

"Holy shit," I muttered through a full mouth. "Path..." The robot looked at me, very eagerly. I swallowed my bite. "These are really good dude."

"High five?"

~~~~~~~~  
  


An hour later Bloodhound had returned and I was making them try some of Path's Pop-Tarts, when there was a knock on my door. I stood up to go answer it, watching as Hound yoinked the last piece of Pop-Tart on my plate.

"Hey!" I exclaimed as they shoved it into their mouth. They grinned as they slid their helmet over their head. I shook my head and opened the door. "Wraith!" I exclaimed. "And... Crypto?" I blinked a few times. "You guys are friends?"

"Crypto has been helping me," Wraith explained. "Well, us, really."

"Oh?" I asked, looking over to Crypto.

"I felt bad that... someone destroyed the old arena and you two could no longer search for answers about what had happened to you," he started. "I have cracked IMC security many times and some of the terminals on this planet provide access into their system."

"Which means?"

"He found out what happened," Wraith cut in.

"Wha-" I started, when another voice interrupted.

"He did?!" Mirage exclaimed. Wraith and Crypto looked behind them to see Mirage, Octane, and Pathfinder listening in on the conversation from the couches. "We looked so long for those! There's no way he can just show up and, and-" Crypto held up a small flash drive, causing Mirage to shut up.

"Would you like to see?" Crypto asked, looking at me. I took a deep breath and looked behind me to Bloodhound.

"Yeah," I finally said. "Let's do it." 


	63. Chapter 63

We ended up moving to the common area in the hallway as not everyone could fit inside my tiny apartment. Bloodhound sat beside me on the couch and Mirage sat on the other side, Octane crammed into the tiny space left beside Mirage. Wraith was sitting on the floor, leaning up against the couch, while Pathfinder took a chair. Crypto had hooked up his laptop to the T.V and was sitting on the ground in front of it.

"How much do you know already?" I asked Wraith, suddenly feeling nervous about what I was about to learn.

"I know what happened to me," she said. "We, we were different." I nodded a few times and I felt Bloodhound squeeze my hand.

"You sure you are okay with us being here?" Mirage asked a second later. I nodded again, my nerves seeming to have taken control over my vocal cords.

"Alright," Crypto said, finally interrupting the silence that had overtaken the room. He looked over at me and I nodded one more time. "So, you are aware that you and Wraith were frozen in similar circumstances."

"Wait, wait, really?!" Octane interrupted. "Wraith you're from-" Mirage elbowed him. "Lo siento."

"When the majority of people left Earth, you two were left in an old government research facility," Crypto went on. "It appears that you were forgotten about till about three hundred years ago." I tilted my head, to display my confusion. "The IMC had been raiding old facilities, like the one you were in, in search of any old research that could prove useful." Crypto hit a few buttons on his laptop and a second later there were a few photos on the screen.

"Is that-?" I started. He nodded. On the screen were two pods that I recognized to be the machine I was frozen in, though in these pictures, I could make out an outline of a person inside of them. I gulped.

"IMC was working with another company at the time. Both wanted to use you for research and experiments so they came to an agreement. The IMC took Wraith and the other took you."

"What company?" I asked. Crypto changed to another set of photos, displaying a logo.

"Hammond Robotics."

"Hammond?" Mirage was the first to pipe up. Crypto nodded.

"Wait, wait, who's Hammond?" I asked. I felt a pit in my stomach growing.

"They worked hand in hand with the IMC during the war," Mirage explained to me. "Care more for profit than they do people."

"And this all happened three hundred years ago?" Crypto nodded again.

"While the IMC decided to wait till recently to unfreeze and test on Wraith, Hammond started right away with you," Crypto got ready to change the pictures on the screen again. "This... this may be hard to see."

"I can handle it." The screen changed and it displayed a video. On it, the pod I was frozen in, surrounded by a couple of people in lab coats. I could tell they were in the process of unfreezing me. I felt my brows furrow as I watched myself stumble out of it, being caught by one of the people.

"Where am I?" the video version of me coughed out, I was looking frantically at the room I was in. In real-time I felt my stomach do a backflip as I watched one of the scientists poke a needle into my arm, knocking me out where I was then put onto a gurney. The video ended and I felt everyone's gaze on me. I was shaking my head.

"I..." I started, trying to think. "I don't... remember that." I looked over at Crypto, the video now replaying itself in the background.

"Well, given Wraith's lack of memory and you not having any from that year, it's safe to say the process of freezing impairs one's memories."

"Year?" I felt my breathing getting more rapid and I saw Crypto bite his bottom lip.

"Yeah." I could hear the sympathy in his voice. "You were in that facility for just under a year." He changed the screen to display multiple videos that had been taken over that time course, each of me. "In that time," Crypto went on. "They ended up freezing and unfreezing you multiple times, usually between tests they ran." It went quiet again as my eyes were fixated on the screen. None of the videos had sound but I could tell very clearly that I had been in pain. I felt my bottom jaw beginning to tremble as my eyes filled with tears.

"W-why?" I finally managed to croak out, my voice cracking as I spoke. Crypto shook his head.

"Elskan," Bloodhound's voice was barely a whisper. They took both of my hands into theirs. "Breathe." I nodded a few times, taking a few shaky breaths, slowly turning them into deeper ones until I felt myself stop shaking.

"Kid?" Mirage asked, putting a hand on my shoulder. I nodded a few more times, wiping my eyes before any tears had the chance to fall.

"I'm okay." I nodded again, reassuring myself. "I'm okay." I took another deep breath. "I just wasn't expecting that," I said with a small laugh. "So... is, are they, is that how I got the uh," I made a sticky motion with my hand that wasn't holding Bloodhound's.

"They described it as a side effect from the continuous freezing and thawing." I stifled back another laugh, resulting in me getting a few worried glances.

"So, they did all of that... only to discover that if you refreeze a human too many times they get sticky?" I saw Mirage grin a little. "What about the invisibility than?"

"That was a result of the testing they were doing. Most of the information was redacted so I can't tell you for sure what they were trying to accomplish, but they title your case 'The Winter Soldier'." This time I couldn't help but laugh. The small laugh quickly turned into a bigger one. I could hear Bloodhound chuckling a little as well.

"Clever," they said to me. "That too would have been a good outfit choice for you."

"You don't think they were planning on chopping my arm off, do you?" Bloodhound laughed a little again while everyone else looked at us, very confused.

"I don't think that was in their plans..." Crypto started, looking through his laptop.

"No, no," I laughed again.

"It's a Marvel reference," Bloodhound explained over my laughter. I looked at them and grinned,

"I know this isn't the time, but you understanding Marvel references is like... really hot."

"Gross!"

"Get a room!" Mirage and Octane yelled at us simultaneously. My face flushed red and Bloodhound laughed, wrapping their arms around me to pull me closer. I looked back at Crypto.

"So, what happened? I woke up back on Earth, three hundred years after that, right?"

"Yes," Crypto said. "It appears that they were running another... experiment at the time, which was getting better results so they decided to see if freezing you back on Earth would change anything."

"Should I be offended by that?"

"Probably," Mirage said. I rolled my eyes.

"So what was the other experiment?" I asked, deciding to ignore Mirage. "Was it another person?" Crypto nodded.

"Those files were even more encrypted than yours, this project was called..." Crypto looked back at his screen, double-checking. "Red Skull."

"Red Skull?" I asked. "So Marvel must've _recently_ been forgotten about then, huh?" I asked no one in particular. "What did they do to Red Skull?" Crypto shrugged,

"I didn't try to crack the files, seeing as they didn't regard you. I suppose I can if you want." Now I shook my head,

"Nah, it's okay. It's probably not important anyway."


	64. Chapter 64

"You sure you're okay?" Bloodhound asked as the two of us were getting ready for bed. I nodded,

"Yeah, I think so." They raised an eyebrow. "Really! I'm just tired." Both parts of my statement were true, after learning about the whole, I was actually experimented on three hundred years ago bit, I was whisked off to do some promotional work that I had agreed to. That part was kind of fun, they took me and a couple of the other legends who had agreed to it back to the arena to do some photoshoots in some of the new arena. The new planet was a lot prettier than I had been expecting and I was growing rather fond of the field of little purple flowers in the one section of the map.

They had also let me ride the train around the entire track a couple of times as apparently my scene that first game on the train had gotten quite popular and they wanted to do photos there. By the end of the day, I was quite tired after posing, getting makeup touched up, and talking to different people that I was drained. I had almost forgotten about the events that took place this morning.

I looked back at Bloodhound who now had their arms crossed.

"You know I could be asking you the same question," I finally said.

"I'm fine," they huffed. Now I raised an eyebrow. Bloodhound sighed. "Okay, point made." I laughed a little as they turned around to the window to close it now that Artur was inside and asleep in his cage. "I think I just need some sleep," Hound finally said.

"Now that's something I can agree with."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_It's freezing. I am behind a wall of glass. The other side, people. People in lab coats. Looking in. My body is shaking. I'm trapped._

_Suddenly, I'm strapped down. I try to turn my head but something is blocking my vision. There's a stabbing feeling in my arm. I can feel myself crying, though for some reason I can't hear it._

_I'm in a tiny room. Tired. My body aches. Without trying I know that the glass door will remain locked. I lay on the ground. Someone is talking to me._

_"I'll get you out of here." It says._

_It's cold again. I try to bang on the glass, but no one on the other side cares._

_Someone is dragging me down a hallway. Every inch of me hurts. I don't try to fight the arms holding me. I know I can't. Soon I'd be back in my tiny room where I can sleep. I look beside me. There's a man, banging on his door, anger in his blue eyes._

_"I'll get you out of here!" he cries again._

_More needles. More pain. More cold._

_"I'll get you out."_

_He's being dragged down the hall now. Blond hair covering his face as he struggles with the guards. They are stronger than him. They always are._

_It gets cold again. Freezing. I can't move._

_"I'll get you out," the voice says again. "I promise."_

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I bolted upright, gasping for air. I felt my entire body shaking, still somehow cold as the images flashed back in my mind.

"Hey," I felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around me. "Sly." The voice was gentle. "It's okay. Just a dream." I nodded a few times, working on trying to steady my breathing. I let Bloodhound guide me closer to them. I leant up against their chest, trying to mimic their calm, deep breathing. "Same nightmare?" they asked a few minutes later. Nightmares had become a regular occurrence for us, both of us plagued by dreams.

"T-this was different." Usually my nightmares had me watching my family grow old. "I-I was back at, at, that place." I felt the tears in my eyes again.

"Shh," Bloodhound squeezed my hand. "It's okay." After a few more minutes I was able to regain my composure and I tried to explain my dream to Bloodhound.

"I think they were memories..." I finally said.

"Perhaps," they said. "Seeing those videos could have triggered them to return."

"I think I would rather they stayed in my subconscious," I said, with a bit of humour in my voice. Bloodhound chuckled a little. "I'm sorry I woke you."

"það er allt í lagi. It is almost time to wake anyway," they said. "I do hear Pathfinder making breakfast already." I nodded. "Hopefully he's making something nutritious, especially if we have a game today."

"We do?" Bloodhound nodded. "Uggh." I borrowed my head into their shoulder. "I don't wanna." 

"You might get to go on the train again..."

"Fine."

~~~~~~~~

We were waiting on the dropship as it brought us closer towards the new arena. I was glad to have something to take my mind off the dream that I woke up to. Bloodhound and I were walking the hallways, waiting for the few minute warning when we came across a figure we recognized.

"Should we tell him?" I whispered over to Bloodhound. They nodded,

"Probably."

"Hey, Jacob!" I yelled down the hallway. The director of PR spun his head around. I grabbed Bloodhound's hand and held it up. I saw his eyes go wide. A second later he started making his way towards, very quickly.

"Attention," the announcer's voice boomed. "Approaching drop zone."

"Wait, wait!" Mr. Young called out.

"Sorry bro!" I yelled behind us. "We kinda have to go!" I spun my head to see him, looking rather confused and perhaps, a little angry. "Yeah we might want to walk faster," I said to Bloodhound. We picked up our pace and ran towards the drop area where the teams were just being announced. We were on separate teams so I quickly gave them a kiss on the helmet and ran over to my team.

"Caustic, Gibraltar," I greeted them.

"Ay bruddah!" Gibraltar exclaimed, giving me a pat on the back. "I don't think we've been teamed up before!" I laughed a little,

"I don't think we have!"

"This is going to be fun!" I nodded and looked over to Caustic.

"Fun," he echoed. I quickly wiped the grin off of my face. I saw Gibraltar roll his eyes. "Let's land here," Caustic said a second later, looking down at the map on his wrist. I looked to see where he wanted to go.

"Geyser?" I asked, wanting to be sure. He nodded. "Is-is there a geyser there?" Caustic glared at me and I laughed. Beside me, Gibraltar laughed as well,

"Well let's go!" He was the first to jump, Caustic and I following right behind. We each drifted towards different buildings, me opting for a long building. I hit the ground and looked over the geyser.

"That sure is a geyser!" I exclaimed. "Do you think it could work as a jump tower?" In the coms, I heard Gibraltar laugh.

"Don't get too excited," Caustic said. "A team landed on the further end."

"Got it." I picked up my pace running through the building I had picked. I grabbed a Peacekeeper, a hemlock, and a white body shield.

"Got one here," I heard Gibraltar say into the coms. He was in the building in front of me so I jogged out of my building and towards him as I heard the first of the gunshots ringing out. By the time I made it inside he already had the enemy under his gun shield. Before I had a chance to say anything, I heard another door open. I spun around with my Peacekeeper and fired. The person was still a bit of a ways away so the shot wasn't enough to do any serious damage, but it did cause them to recoil enough for Gibraltar to fire his gun, an Eva-8 a few times, taking them out for good. I held out my fist to him for a fist bump.

"Good work kid!" he exclaimed, returning the fist bump.

"There's still one more," Caustic interrupted in the coms. As if almost on cue I heard the sound of a Hemlock being fired towards us. The person was at a distance but yet one of the bursts made it through the open window and into my shoulder.

"Shit!" I exclaimed, jumping out of the enemy's sights. Gibraltar tossed me a syringe which I began applying to my shoulder when I heard Caustic fire his weapon, a Longbow.

"Last one removed from the equation," he said calmly. "Sly are you okay?"

"Just fine!" I rolled my shoulder a few times, making sure the pain had faded. "Did ruin the outfit though... they just gave this one to me!" Since I was now technically sponsored by the games, they had given me a new suit with a couple more logos on it and allowed me to put in requests for more. I was currently waiting on my Spider-Gwen outfit to be ready. "Are they going to be mad at me?" Beside me, Gibraltar laughed.

"Well, it looks like we are in the next ring. There's a tunnel in those mountains that has some loot in it, I say we check it out."

"I do prefer enclosed spaces..." Caustic replied, causing me to gulp. We made our way towards the tunnels and were met with the sounds of gunfire coming from inside. I looked over to Caustic who was now smiling under his gas mask. He pulled out one of his gas grenades. "This is going to be fun..." 


	65. Chapter 65

Caustic's gas had taken out the surviving team that was fighting in the tunnels, meaning I had to do no work.

"That was fun!" I exclaimed, looting one of Caustic's kills for an extended heavy mag for my Hemlock. Caustic glared at me. I looked back at the bodies on the ground and saw something red and shiny in one of the pockets of a backpack. "Oh?" I said out loud, grabbing the red item. "What is this?"

"Ay! Looks like we got a vault key!" Gibraltar exclaimed. I squinted my eyes and he pointed to a set of doors on the other side of the tunnel.

"We can go in there?! I thought they just put all the good stuff in there to torment us!" Gibraltar laughed again as I jogged the key over to the door. I looked between it and the door a couple of times and figured out how to unlock it. The doors swung open, I looked in and gold and purple loot looked back. "Wicked." I ran in first and grabbed myself a purple body shield as my team walked in behind me, grabbing loot for themselves as well. "So now what?" I asked once the vault had been ransacked.

"Well, the ring is closing around us," Caustic started. "My gas traps can keep us covered shall more teams seek the loot vault."

"You wanna just sit here?" I asked. Caustic said nothing so I looked over to Gibraltar who shrugged. I sighed and plopped myself down onto one of the benches the loot had been sitting on. Caustic set up a couple more of his traps while Gibraltar checked over his gear. After a minute or so, I already found myself bored and without noticing I found myself swinging my legs and clicking my tongue. Another minute passed and Caustic cleared his throat, when I looked over he glared at me. "Sorry," I mumbled, crossing my feet.

"There's a care package landing outside," Gibraltar said, breaking the silence. "Could draw some more players in here." My face lit up as I got an idea.

"I could play some music!" I said, already pulling out my little Bluetooth speaker. "That would draw them in!"

"Sly if I have to hear any of your incessant-" Caustic didn't have time to finish his sentence as Toxic by Brittney Spears started blaring out of the speakers. I grinned sheepishly and Gibraltar started to laugh. I bopped my head along to the music, laughing a little as well. By the time the song hit the chorus, Caustic looked over at me. "Sly? May I see that?"

"The speaker?" I squinted. "I mean sure?" I tossed the speaker over to him. Without breaking eye contact, Caustic let the speaker fall to the ground, lifted his foot up, and brought it down on top of the speaker. My mouth fell open as he picked it up and tossed it back at me.

"W-why?" I stuttered, looking down at the crushed machine. "I picked that song just for you!" I looked over to Gibraltar for help.

"Yeah, I'm not sure how you didn't see that comin' kid." I crossed my arms.

"Besides," Caustic went on. "Do you not have a partner now you can pester?" My eyes went wide.

"What? A partner?"

"Yeah what are you talkin' bout Caus?" Gibraltar looked as worried as I did. Bloodhound and I weren't planning on going public and here we were surrounded by live cameras.

"Oh, are you and Bloodhound not dating any longer?"

"Caustic!" Gibraltar said harshly. I simply sighed and ran my hands across my face.

"Of all the people we thought would leak it..." I muttered, hands still on my face.

"Oh," Caustic dragged out the word. "Was that not... public information?"

"What do you think?!"

"Oh..." he repeated, realizing what he had just done. "I-" he started but was interrupted by the sound of one of his gas traps being activated. Eager to change the topic, I spun my Peacekeeper around and ran off to go see who was trying to get into the tunnels. I climbed up on the walls and crept over.

"Full team of three here," I relayed into my coms. As I spoke there was another sound of a gas trap, this time from the other entrance to the tunnels.

"Three here as well," Gibraltar said. I sighed while putting on the gas mask Caustic had given me at the start of the round,

"I can't catch a break, can I?" It didn't take long for the fighting to start. Once the team at the back started firing on us, the team on my side pushed forward, wanting to take advantage of the fight, perhaps get some free kills. I made my way back to where my team was to help them as the two teams pushed in on us. Together, we were able to take out one of the teams. I was in the middle of reloading when Caustic threw something in my arms.

"Go set this up at the doors," he instructed as he finished reloading his Spitfire, taking it out on the other team.

"What?!" He did not respond and I sighed again as I carried the gas trap to the back doors. I stood there for a second, trying to figure out how to set it up when the sound of a Charge Rifle went off. Not even a second later I felt the beam from the sniper pierce my shields. "Shit!" Was all I managed to get out before another shot was fired again, this time cracking my shields and going through my stomach. I dropped the gas trap and fell to the ground, clutching my side.

"Sly?" I heard echoing through the tunnels.

"You got another team coming in!" I yelled back, trying to crawl myself over to a bit of cover, leaving a trail of blood behind me. I heard the sound of both my team and the enemies running closer as I leant myself against a rock, getting very light-headed from the amount of blood I was losing. The enemy team was about to run in when mine started shooting towards them, they took cover and soon I realized who was taking cover beside me, trying to kill my team. "Oh hey, babe." Bloodhound immediately spun their head around to look at me, charge rifle still in hand.

"What are you-?"

"No, no, it's cool. Caustic told everyone. Can you believe that? Caustic!" I laughed a little as Bloodhound's goggles filled with red. "He's in there." I nodded towards the tunnels and they took off. "Yeah... don't worry about me." I put my head back on the rock and groaned. "I'll just... bleed out..." My vision had started to go black. "Too bad I don't have any music..."

~~~~~~~

"Ay, kid, get up." I blinked a few times. Gibraltar was in front of me.

"This isn't my respawn room," I mumbled. Gibraltar laughed,

"We ain't dead yet!"

"We're not?" I groaned, sitting up. There were a few used medkits laying around me.

"Well, the two of us are." I tilted my head. "Bloodhound was very adamant about killing Caustic." Now I laughed,

"They'll probably do it again once everyone is respawned." Gibraltar shook his head but offered me a hand to stand up.

"Only two squads left. Ring's closing on the other side of our tunnel." I nodded a couple of times and followed him into the tunnel. As we walked I began to take notice of just how many bodies were on the ground.

"Jesus..." I muttered under my breath. It had been a massacre. "The poor sap who has to clean this up," I said while switching my Hemlock for a Flatline. We heard the sound of shots coming from outside the tunnel as the ring started to close. By the time we made it to the end of the tunnel, the fighting had already stopped. Jogging over to the buildings we ran into one of the teammates trying to heal up his teammate.

"Wanna see somethin' fun?" Gibraltar asked. I nodded eagerly. He grinned and pulled out a small device that he tossed towards the two enemies. Next, he pulled out his dome shield and placed it on the ground. "You might wanna stay under here," he laughed as the first of the bombardment began to fall. The standing survivor left his dying teammate in an attempt to try and run to cover but a second later a different voice boomed overhead.

"Attention. Winner decided." 


	66. Chapter 66

The new island was set up differently so we wouldn't be greeted instantly by the press getting back from a victory, rather they were kept on the other side of the building. This meant when I stepped off of the ship I was greeted with a very angry looking director of PR. I faked a grin,

"H-hi Jacob!" He held up a hand.

"Don't."

"I mean, we had told you already about us so I don't see why you should be mad..." I trailed off when I saw his glare. "It's Caustic's fault if anything you should be mad at him," I tried to defend myself, causing only Gibraltar to laugh; Jacob simply crossed his arms. "Alright fine," I admitted defeat.

"I need the three of you in my office," he said to me before walking off. I gulped.

"I think I just got sent to the principal's office," I said to Gibraltar, who laughed again. "I never got sent to the principal's office! I had a clean record!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Public Relations office was still a mess. Granted, we had only been on this planet for a few days so I wasn't that surprised that Jacob's office was mostly still in boxes. Once Caustic and Bloodhound had been respawned there was a bit of discussion on the importance of communication before a match and Caustic was sent away, grumbling about puerile romance. Once he was gone, Jacob went on,

"Well, believe it or not, you may have picked a good time to do this shall we want this news to fade from the press fast."

"Oh?" I asked. "Do we want that?" I asked.

"Do we?" Jacob repeated.

"We... do?" Bloodhound finished, sounding a little unsure.

"We do," I nodded. Jacob rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed.

"Alright, you're still going to have to deal with them on your way out of here, the news of you dating is trending on all social media platforms." I noticed Hound tense their shoulders so I reached over and grabbed one of their hands as Jacob continued. "But we are going to be announcing the new legend in a few days' time."

"New legend?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Ah yeah, they speed up the entry test cause of some big sponsorship."

"Sponsorship for the person or for the games?" Bloodhound asked.

"Both. It was supposed to happen a while ago but," he waved his hands around. "Anything is possible with a check that big," he sighed.

"Who's the sponsor?" I asked, feeling a little excited that there was going to be more interest in the games. More money meant more exciting things could be added.

"Hammond Robotics, you've probably heard of them by now." Now my shoulders tensed.

"I have," I muttered through clenched teeth. I felt Bloodhound squeeze my hand.

"So are we good to go?" Bloodhound interrupted the conversation.

"Yeah, I suppose so," Jacob nodded and the two of us stood up. "Good luck out there."

~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time we had made it out of the crowd both Bloodhound and I were exhausted. The reporters didn't hesitate to ask the most detailed questions about our lives and we kept getting trapped in a loop of saying we weren't going to answer some only to be asked even more personal questions.

I was also now on board with the plan to kill Caustic. Thankfully, it appeared that the man felt bad for creating the mess and there was supper waiting for us when we got back to the housing complex.

"You know how to cook?" I questioned upon smelling the chicken he had cooked up.

"He may have had some help," Gibraltar laughed, eating a plate as well. Caustic rubbed the back of his head,

"Yeah... it should be... edible," he muttered. I squinted my eyes, about to question it when Bloodhound interrupted me.

"Þakka þér fyrir. We will both enjoy." Caustic nodded. We were just about to head into Bloodhound's room to eat when the door to Mirage's room burst open.

"I knew I smelt chicken!" Octavio exclaimed, running towards the table where a bit of chicken remained. "Mierda, I love it when you cook Makoa," he hummed through a full mouth.

"Ha, thanks brudda! But actually, Caustic did most of the work here!" Gibraltar exclaimed, patting Caustic on the back. Octane's mouth fell open, the remaining chicken falling out of his mouth and onto the floor.

"So Sly!" Mirage interrupted, upon entering the common area and seeing the chicken on the floor. "How did it go with Jacob?" I sighed. "That good?"

"I mean, everything is cool with the whole dating thing, that was fine, but he mentioned the games are getting a big sponsorship from Hammond," I practically spit the name out of my mouth.

"Hammond?!" Octane exclaimed. "That's wicked!" Mirage shot him a glare. "Oh wait, are we supposed to be mad about the whole experimenting on Sly bit?" I put a hand on my face.

"They did what now?" Gibraltar cut in.

"Nothing!" I spoke up. "It was three hundred years ago. Everyone who did that to me is long dead, so why should I be worried about it?" Everyone in the room, including Octane looked at me with raised eyebrows. "It's fine. And, now, our chicken is getting cold so..." I trailed off and grabbed Bloodhound's hand, leading them into their room before anyone had a chance to protest. Once inside, Bloodhound took their mask off, revealing their face that looked as concerned as everyone outside. "I'm fine," I quickly said. They didn't say anything and rather slowly took a bite of the mashed potatoes on the plate. "Sorry."

"Don't be sorry Elskan. I understand how you feel." I nodded. "Now come, I taught Artur a new trick, I think you'll really enjoy it."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_It's cold._

_Freezing._

_My whole body shakes as they take me out of the machines._

_"W-where-" I start to sputter. There are people all around me. Wires attached to me. I try to rip them but my hands can't move, there's something holding them down. "Wh-what-" None of the people say anything to me, rather to each other. It blurs together._

_"Vitals sta-"_

_"Loss of short-term mem-"_

_"Prepare a vial of-"_

_They move me down a hallway. I can barely stand on my own but I still try to fight against the arms holding me._

_It's still so cold._

_They throw me into a room, I fall to the ground. I try to stand but a door is slammed. I sink to the ground again, feeling the warm tears flooding down my cold face._

_"They did it again, didn't they?" a horse voice croaks. There's a man beside me. Not beside me. There's a glass wall. "Bastards," he mumbles. His words turn into a cough._

_"Did w-what?" He shakes his head. "Where..." I try to ask again. His eyes are closed now._

_"Don't worry..." he says weakly. "I'll get us out... I'll kill all of them...."_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My eyes sprung open. Somehow I'm still freezing cold so I yank up some blankets and snuggle in closer to the person beside me, jaw still trembling. Bloodhound wraps an arm around me, pulling me closer, though they still sleep. A glimmer of sunlight begins to peek through our curtains. We had the day off today and I realize that I could let myself fall asleep again.

I sighed and closed my eyes again, trying to shake the image of the other man in the lab out of my brain. He would be dead by now. Even if he did break out of there as he planned in my faded memories, that was three hundred years ago. He's dead.

But why does it still leave a weird feeling in my chest?

Beside me, Bloodhound mumbles something in their sleep. I can't pick out any of the words, but I can tell it's a nightmare. Being back on this planet had started giving them more of them. I carefully adjusted my position so that their head was on my chest and I could run my fingers through their hair.

Their mumbling sleep talking ceases and I can feel their breathing steady again. I closed my eyes again, thinking about how I could sit like this forever.

Then the fire alarm in the kitchen went off.

"Sorry friends!" Pathfinder. "I think I put the oven on the wrong temperature again!" 


	67. Chapter 67

We were gathered in the common area outside of our rooms. They were going to be announcing the new legend any second.

"Do you think it is going to be someone we know?" I asked the handful of legends that were sitting in the room with me.

"It would be cool if it was a celebrity or something," Mirage answered. I looked to Bloodhound, who simply shrugged.

"It's probably going to be some nobody!" Octane exclaimed, bouncing into the room. "I heard all the people trying out were old military or something not exciting." I was about to reply to him when the Apex broadcast started. An announcer rambled on for a few minutes about the games and what a new player would mean and so on and so forth before finally getting to the good stuff.

"And the new legend, some of you may know, Jimmy 'The Forge' McCormick!" I squinted my eyes as I looked at the person on the screen.

"Holy shit!" Octane jumped up off of the couch. "Jimmy McCormick?!"

"Am I supposed to know who he is?" I asked no one in particular.

"Only the five-time Hyperfighting Federation Champion!" Octane exclaimed as if that was going to explain things.

"A wrestler?" Mirage asked, sitting a little further up as the man himself walked onto the screen. "That's pretty cool!"

"People still wrestle?" I asked, again to no one in particular.

"Shh!" Octane interrupted all of us, now sitting back down on the couch, though he was still buzzing with excitement. "I wanna hear what he has to say!" I looked back over to the T.V. where Forge was now standing in front of all of the cameras, plastering on a grin that read as arrogance. I could tell I wasn't going to like him already.

"Firstly!" he started. "I would like to give a big thanks to Hammond Robotics!" I crossed my arms. Definitely wasn't going to like him. Octane, on the other hand...

"Do you think he'll sign my trading cards?!" he was up off the couch now. "I bet one of dad's maids could mail them-" the door to his room shut as he dialled a number on his phone. I looked over to Mirage,

"He's going to frame those in the bedroom, isn't he?" he muttered. I rolled my eyes then looked over to Bloodhound.

"You a fan of wrestling?"

"What he does is not wrestling," they said. "Those Hyperfighting tournaments are all set up." I nodded.

"Yeah, they did that back in my day too."

"He's going to be in for a shock then when he gets here," Mirage piped in. "I wonder if he knows we _really_ murder each other?" We all laughed.

"Now, Mr. McCormick," an interviewer went on.

"Please call me Jimmy," the new legend interrupted.

"Jimmy. Are you nervous about any of the other competitors in the games?"

"Who? The other legends?" Forge laughed. "I think I'll be okay." Now Mirage and Bloodhound both crossed their arms.

"What would you have to say about some of them? Makoa Gibraltar, for example?"

"Oh, well, nice and kind are admirable qualities when trying to get into heaven. Not so much in a bloodsport. This guy's not even on my radar."

"What?!" I exclaimed. "Is he actually trash talking Gibraltar?!"

"I think he is," Mirage muttered. "This dude's a total prick."

"What about Pathfinder?" the interviewer pressed on.

"Oh, he better not trash talk Pathfinder," I mumbled.

"That thing?" Forge laughed again. "You think I'm going to let two tons of nuts and bolts get the jump on me? Let me tell you something. It'll be a cold day on Talos before some robot gets the better of a McCormick!"

"That son of a bitch!" Mirage and I exclaimed at the same time. The interviewer decided to go on,

"And how about Sly?"

"He better watch his mouth," Bloodhound said from beside me. My mouth fell open as I watched the screen.

"Sly?" Forge started, laughing once again. "That kid? What's she going to do? Sing me to death? I could crush her easier than a grape!" he laughed again. I felt myself getting angry, and yet he went on. "We all know her first match was a fluke. Let me tell you, if it would've been me in there instead of Witt, she wouldn't have made it off of that island!" My mouth fell open.

"Did he just-"

"ég ætla að drepa hann," Bloodhound said.

"What?"

"I'm going to _slatra_ him."

"You know what, me too!" Mirage piped in.

"No, no, no," I said. "We can't kill him yet."

"He just insulted Bangalore!" Mirage yelled.

"What? Rewind it!" I exclaimed, but I was too late, and the program changed from the new legend to Mr. Young, the director or P.R., announcing there were going to be some changes to the area.

"We just got here, they're changing the arena already?" Mirage asked.

"Maybe they liked my idea about more trains!" I said, trying to lighten the mood again. We all looked back to the T.V.

"Since we are working alongside Hammond, we are going to be incorporating a Planet Harvester into the arena." My eyes went wide.

"A what?!"

"Ohh, no," Mirage said, drawing out the word.

"What's a Planet Harvester?" I asked again.

"What about a Planet Harvester?" Octane said, walking into the room again.

"They're putting one in the arena," Mirage explained.

"Wicked!"

"It's going to destroy everything in there..." Bloodhound said quietly. I looked over at them, I could hear the worry in their voice. I offered them my hand, but they shook their head. "Excuse me." They stood up off of the couch.

"Are we going to kill that guy?" I asked with a small laugh, standing up as well. They shook their head as I followed them to their room.

"I'm going for a run. Artur needs some fresh air."

"Can I join you?" They didn't say anything. "You don't have to be alone."

"I know... I just don't think you'd be able to keep up." I could hear the smirk in their voice.

"Is this how it's going to be?" They nodded, and I grinned, opening the door again, taking a step out. "Well, first you'll have to catch up to me!"

~~~~~~~~~~

Obviously, I lost the race against Bloodhound. I had only made it a mile or before they came barrelling through the woods towards me, giggling as I squirmed in their arms before I finally gave up and planted a smooch on their mask.

"Feeling better?" I asked, the two of us now sitting on the ground. They nodded.

"I just wish I could stop them," they said softly. "This planet has seen a lot of destruction from their greed." I nodded along with them, letting the quiet sounds of the forest fill the conversation. After a few minutes of us sitting, Bloodhound stood up and offered me their hand. "Come," they said. "There's something I want to show you. It's not far." I grinned and grabbed their hand, letting them guide me through the trees.

We didn't say much as we walked, but I was happy to be in their company. About a mile or two later, Bloodhound and I were in front of a lake. They sat down on a rock close to the shore and motioned for me to join. I sat and wrapped one of my arms around them as they gazed at the lake. The sun was just starting to set on the other side, casting colourful lights onto the water. Bloodhound lay their head on my shoulder.

"This is really beautiful," I said. I felt Hound nod.

"See that smoke off in the distance?" they reached out and pointed. "On the other side of the lake?" Sure enough, I could make out a trail of smoke. I nodded. "Mitt heima," their voice was almost a whisper. "My home." I heard them sigh, so I took my other arm and gave them a hug, my other gently holding their head. "Despite everything," Bloodhound went on a minute later. "It is nice to be back."

"I get that," I said.

"My uncle, Artur, raised me there after my parents... we sent him off in this lake when I was a young teen."

"Sent him-?" I stopped myself. "Oh, you mean like..." Bloodhound nodded. I felt a knot in my stomach as I put together why they wanted to bring me here, it wasn't just to see the village form a distance. "He would have liked you," Bloodhound went on. "You and all your ancient technology," they laughed a little.

"It's not that old!" I defended myself. Bloodhound laughed again,

"He actually would have preferred older."

"Sounds like he was an interesting man."

"He was indeed." Above us, a bird cawed, and I looked up to see the raven Artur swooping around. "He remembers this place as well," Bloodhound said, watching the bird. "þú gætir farið í heimsókn," they said to the bird. "Þar sem ég get það ekki." And with that, Artur flew up towards the village across the lake. Bloodhound and I sat looking at the lake for a few minutes, watching the sunset.

"Thank you for bringing me here," I finally said. "I know it couldn't have been easy." They nodded,

"Perhaps one day we can venture further towards it. But for now, we should head home before the sun sinks for the night. Artur can find his way back."


	68. Chapter 68

"What do you have to say about Forge's comments about you?" a reporter asked the second I walked out of the Apex Complex, having been just respawned after the days match. I had been paired with Pathfinder and Octane, both of who wanted to drop hotzone, neither of them who were around me with the other team that dropped with us. 

"Uh…," I mumbled, looking around at all of the cameras, wondering why they weren't interviewing the winning team. It had been a few days since the announcement of Forge and all of his comments, I was pretty sure he had even made a few more, but none of us legends had been out in public. Not that there was much to do on Talos anyway. The reporters kept looking at me, reaching the microphones as close to my face as possible. "Well, I think John Cena over there is underestimating the power of Queen, that's for sure," I said with a laugh. 

"Who?"

"What?" Multiple reporters asked at the same time. I sighed. 

"Bohemian Rhapsody?" the reporters shook their heads. "Oh. Well. Um," I thought for a second; clearly, none of them were satisfied with my answer. "I just worry Forge doesn't actually realize what he's getting into, you know? Back in my time, what he did was all make-believe, so I think someone needs to tell him we are going to kill each other, for real." This answer seemed to satisfy the hungry reporters. They turned their attention to another legend walking out of the complex, so I took my cue and snuck off, wanting to get back home before I got stopped by anyone else. 

"Sly!" a voice called out behind me. "Wait up!" 

"Hey Mirage," I slowed down my pace so he could catch up. "Thought you'd be chatting with the cameras." 

"Ah, well, no. Forge didn't personally roast me the other day, and my team placed fifth so…" 

"At least you lived longer than a minute." Mirage chuckled a little. 

"Yeah, I heard you got abandoned, died to a what, RE-45?" 

"Excuse you! First, it wasn't their fault I got stranded upon landing and second... It was a P2020…." This made Mirage laugh even harder, patting me on the back as he did so. 

"We've all been there, kid, don't sweat it. But I mean, it could have been worse." 

"Yeah, you could've killed me," I mumbled loud enough for him to hear. 

"Hey!" Now I laughed. "I totally would have had you that one game if the new guy didn't steal my kills." 

"I'm sure," I said, rolling my eyes. 

"Haven't seen much of you lately" Mirage went on as we walked back to the housing unit. "What have you been doing? Besides Bloodhound?" he said with a smirk.

"Mirage!" I exclaimed, only causing him to laugh. 

"What?" he laughed. "I mean I imagine it's most likely the other way around but-"

"Mirage!" 

"Am I wrong?" He raised his eyebrows. 

"Well-" I started. "I-" 

"It's nothing to be embarrassed about, I know I may not give off that vibe, but sometimes I'll let Tav-" 

"Topic change!" I practically shouted. "How are you doing since the move?" 

"Oh, you know… fine." 

"Mirage, I can see you frowning." He didn't say anything. "I know it must be hard for you between the house, the bar, and…" I trailed off, realizing I was approaching an emotional subject. "Are you holding up?" He nodded a few times. 

"Yeah… I have someone checking on her every day and getting groceries and stuff, so that's good." I nodded. "It's fine. I'm fine. We don't need to talk about it." 

"Okay," I offered him a smile. "If you ever want to." 

"I know," Mirage grinned as well. "Thanks, Sly." We walked a few more steps in silence. "You know I think my conversation choice was much more exciting if you want we could go back to-"

"I think I'll pass." 

"Are you sure? I bet I could give you some pointers if you-" 

"No, thank you." 

"Not even-"

"Nope." 

"But-"

"I'm good." 

"Sly! Mirage!" Another voice called out as we approached the housing complex.

"Oh, thank God," I mumbled. "Mr. Young!" I waved to the person waiting for us.

"Please, Jacob is fine." 

"What's up?" Mirage asked for me. 

"I just wanted to confirm your presence at the interview tonight." 

"Is that tonight?!" Mirage exclaimed. 

"I'm sorry, the what?" 

"They're coming in to interview Forge and wanted a few legends to be there for some photos… Elliott, you said you would pass the message along." Mirage faked a grin. "Well, the ship to the arena is leaving at five. They want to do the interview inside Sorting Factory for some reason," Jacob sighed. "Just be on the ship." And with that, he took off, probably to go remind someone else about the event tonight.

"How long have you known about this?" I asked Mirage. 

"Uhh, only a few days." I opened my mouth to complain, but he held a finger up. "In my defence, that night you were off in the forest or whatever doing… well, that would bring us back to that other conversation…" I rolled my eyes. 

"I'm going to get ready." Mirage laughed again as we walked into the building. I made my way up to my room, where a person was waiting for me. "Hey, Babe," I said to Bloodhound, giving them a quick kiss on their mask before unlocking my door. They followed me inside, 

"The weather is looking nice tonight, I was thinking we could head outside, maybe do a picnic and... why are you making that face?" I sighed.

"Apparently, I have to go watch this Forge guy do an interview."

"Ah, I did hear about that." 

"Think I could bail without anyone noticing?" Bloodhound shook their head. "I don't even have anything nice to wear," I said, flopping myself onto the couch, face first. "And I still want to punch this dude in the face." This made Bloodhound chuckle.

"Would you like me to come with you?" they asked. "Make sure no punches are thrown?" I tilted my head to look at them, 

"You don't have to. I know you don't like doing things around the press." 

"I would not mind. They will be focused on Forge anyways. And besides, I wouldn't want to miss a chance to see you in that lovely jumpsuit you have." I rolled my eyes. 

"Alright," I sat myself up. "I suppose it could be fun. And if not, we could always sneak away to somewhere else in the arena…" I wiggled my eyebrows. "God, I'm sorry, I let Mirage get into my head." Bloodhound tilted their head. "Be glad he's too scared of you to ask about your sex life." 

"Wha-"

"What should I do with my hair?" I interrupted. My hair had grown quite a bit since I first joined the games. "Maybe I should just wear the Spider-Man mask." 

"I can braid it if you like." I nodded, and they sat down beside me. 

"Are you sure we can't bail from this thing?" I asked a few minutes later. Bloodhound laughed a little,

"I'm sure. It shouldn't take long." 

"I guess. One interview, right? What's the worst that could happen?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check me out on Tumblr for more writing and tipping info!
> 
> https://mozambique-and-a-dream.tumblr.com/


	69. Chapter 69

Quite a few of the legends had decided to come to the event tonight. Some legends had a word or two to say to the new guy, mostly just Bangalore, and rumour of free food at the venue drew the rest. Even Caustic came out of his hole. Most of us had dressed up a bit for the occasion, only Bloodhound remained in what they usually wore for the games. Although I did notice they changed pairs of gloves, opting for black instead of red, which I guess counted as dressing up for them. 

"You guys don't think this guy is going to be that big of a jerk in person… right?" I asked no one in particular. 

"He's going to be my second best friend!" Pathfinder chirped up. "I even made him a friendship bracelet!" I raised my eyebrows, wondering if he understood the comments Forge had made about him.

"I bet he'll be fine!" Gibraltar exclaimed. "Guys like that need to act like that' in his profession."

"Oh, I've seen him outside his 'profession'," Bangalore muttered. "Guy's a total jackass." I nodded a few times,

"That makes me feel better." 

"It'll be fine!" Lifeline said. "Everyone's gonna keep things civil so the night'll swing by! Right?" she asked, eyeing her girlfriend. 

"Fine," she grumbled. "But if he throws the first punch…" 

"I just hope he'll sign my trading cards," Octane interrupted the conversation. Everyone glared at him. "What?! They're mint condition! They'll be worth more than all of us someday!" 

"That's what they said about my signed Marvel comics," I mumbled, loud enough for everyone to hear. "I spent a couple hundred so RDJ would sign an Iron Man one at a con and a couple extra on a cosplay, and now they're both probably in the ocean after everyone flooded that place." 

"I understand some of those words," Mirage said. I was about to try to explain when the ship we were in shook, signaling we were landing. "At least we don't have to jump out this time, hey guys?" Mirage asked the group with a laugh. A minute later the doors opened, the ship having landed in the field across from Sorting Factory. I laced my fingers through Bloodhound's as we walked off of the ship. 

"It feels weird being here without a gun in my hands," I said. 

"It's peaceful," Bloodhound nodded. As we approached Sorting, it was apparent that they had decked the place out for the event today. For a brief second, I wondered how they would've cleaned up all of the blood and bullet shells from the ground in only a couple of hours. Now instead of bullets, there were bright lights, cameras, and even a red carpet. 

"All this for one guy?" I muttered. "This better be some interesting interview." I heard Bloodhound chuckle a little as we walked in. Most of the cameras were set up on a couple of chairs, where I assumed the interview was going to be taking place. A few others were focused on us as we walked in, snapping pictures as we walked in. I felt Bloodhound tighten their grip. "It's okay," I said to them. "We don't have to-" I offered, loosening my grip on their hand, but they shook their head. 

"May as well give them something else to talk about other than the new legend," I could hear the grin in their voice. "After all, one short interview isn't going to be much to talk about for long." I laughed with them as we followed the rest of the legends over to where the food table was set up, ignoring the questions reporters were asking as we walked by. I decided to head straight for the desserts and grabbed a cupcake to snack on. 

A few minutes passed, and nothing exciting had happened yet.

"I'm beginning to regret my appearance," I heard Caustic say, who had already downed two full bowls of chilli. 

"Are you sure you don't want anything to eat?" I asked Bloodhound. They shook their head. "I'm sure we can shove a couple breadsticks into my purse for later," I said with a grin. That comment sent me a few weird glances from the other legends, at least those who hadn't gone off to socialize. 

"There they are!" a voice cut in. I spun my head to see the new legend walking up to the group of us gathered around the food. "I heard my fan club had arrived!" I felt myself clench my jaw as I forced a grin. Looking at some of the others I could tell they were doing the same. Luckily we had Octane who started a conversation with him. I quickly grabbed a brownie to stuff in my face, hoping it would get me out of any conversation. Unfortunately, a minute or so later Forge had made his way towards me and Bloodhound. "Bloodhound and Sly, right?" he asked. 

"Yup," I said, mouth still full. 

"I gotta admit you clean up pretty nice!" he said towards me. I squinted my eyes. "That thing you wear in the arena does no favours for your hips!" My mouth fell open, causing a little brownie to fall out.

"What did you just say?" Bloodhound said aggressively before I had the chance to. 

"Relax bro, just a compliment," Forge said. "Besides, if you can grab yourself a girl like that, you've probably ain't so bad looking yourself under all that." 

"Excuse me?" I now asked hands clenched into fists. Before he had the chance to answer, someone by the set called him over to start the interview. 

"Well, it was a pleasure to meet you both!" Forge said before running over. 

"I'm going to kill him!" I exclaimed in a harsh whisper. 

"One step ahead of you," Bloodhound responded, taking their axe into their hands.

"Woah woah there," Bangalore stepped in front of us both. "Listen, as much as I want to lynch the guy right here and now, we can't." 

"But did you hear what he said about me?! About Hound?!" I exclaimed, my whisper getting a little louder. 

"Uh-huh, and that's exactly why we need to take a few breaths before we do anything stupid," she said. I could see the seriousness in her face. "Hound. Axe away. No one is killing anyone today" Bloodhound huffed but still put the axe down. "Thank you. Now let's go watch this asshat talk so we can get home." We made our way over to where the interview was taking place, giving us a clear line of sight to what was going on. 

"I can't believe we have to live with this guy," I whispered over to Bloodhound, completely ignoring what was going on on the stage.

"I agree," Bloodhound whispered back, clearly not paying attention to the interview either. "I am already tired of hearing his voice." 

"Tell me about-" I cut myself off as the lights above us flickered. I glanced towards the interview, wondering what was going on when I noticed someone standing behind Forge. Not someone. Something. 

I grabbed Bloodhound's arm and watched the machine transform his arm into a blade before plunging it right through Forge's chest. It then retracted its blade, looked around at the screaming camera crews and leapt up, landing on the floor above while Forge's body crumpled to the ground.  
  
Instead of reacting, me and my fellow legends had instinct kicked in. 

"Don't let him get away!" Bangalore was the first to yell, already making a break for the stairs that led up to where the robot had gone. Without hesitating, I made my way for the wall and climbed up, rushing to the roof of the building. 

"Where did he go?!" I yelled to the others who had made it to the top. Bloodhound pointed towards the tunnels that lead to Lava City, where I could make out the outline of whatever it was that just attacked Forge. I realized I was the only one who could safely get down off of the roof, so I decided to make a break for it, sticking to the wall and climbing down. 

"Sly, wait!" Bloodhound called out behind me. I ignored them and kept running, I stood the best chance of catching this guy, and I was determined to do so. I sprinted towards the tunnels, also ignoring the fact that the jumpsuit I was wearing was not built for running. I pushed on till I got to the crossroads in the tunnel, where I slowed down to a stop and looked both ways. 

That's when I heard a sound come from behind me, sending a chill down my spine. I spun around and found myself face to face with him. We made eye contact, and as I looked into the glowing red of his eyes, I felt my stomach drop and the colour drain from my face. 

"It's-" my jaw was trembling. The machine in front of me tilted it's head and took a step towards me. I instinctively took a step back, realizing I didn't have a weapon on me. What the hell was I thinking? "It's you," I finally sputtered. I had backed myself into a wall, and the robot was inches from my face.

"So," he started, his voice low and guttural. "You do remember." I started shaking my head. 

"I don't…" I closed my eyes. "You can't be… It's not…" 

"Oh, it is," he rasped. "What they did to you paved the path for me." He placed a cold, metal finger under my chin and tilted my head up, cutting it as he did so. "I should kill you," he stated. My chest was tight, this couldn't be happening. 

"N-no," I whispered. "Y-you said you would save me!" The man, or robot rather, tilted his head again. It almost looked like he was trying to smile,

"Oh, but I did," he growled. "Just… a couple of years later," he laughed.

"Wha-" I started, my head spinning.

"Sly!" a third voice called out from the tunnel. Bloodhound. I inhaled sharply as the machine pulled out a pistol and aimed it towards them. 

"No!" I shouted, making a reach for his arm. "Not them!" His head snapped back almost to the point where it was backwards and now the gun was pointed at my skull. I should not have touched him. I squeezed my eyes shut, preparing for the worst as the sound of the gun exploded through the empty tunnels. A bolt of pain rippled through my right shoulder. I felt myself cry out, but I couldn't hear anything due to the ringing in my ears. 

I stumbled forward and quickly found myself in familiar arms. They were calling out to more people at the other end of the tunnel. The robot was nowhere in sight. I looked up at Bloodhound was using both of their hands to keep pressure on my shoulder, and I felt myself smile at them. 

"We seem to be in situations like these a lot," I said through the pain. I heard them laugh. "I don't think normal couples do this that often." I was getting more and more lightheaded, I knew I would lose consciousness soon. I could hear the sounds of more people running towards us, the familiar sound of a healing drone. Bloodhound put their forehead on mine,

"When have we ever been normal?" they whispered. I laughed, trying to focus on them rather than anything else going on.

"J-just wait till you hear about who the murder robot is..." 


	70. Chapter 70

I woke up in a hospital bed. Blinking to adjust my eyes to the brightness of the room, I slowly sat up. There was a bit of pain in my shoulder that caused me to wince. 

"Gently now, Elskan," a voice spoke from beside me. I nodded and allowed Bloodhound to help me sit up, they then took my hands into theirs. The window was open, revealing a dark night sky. As I sat up, I noticed Mirage fast asleep in a chair in the room as well, giving me a few memories back to the first time I had met him. 

"What happened?" I asked Bloodhound, quiet enough to not disturb Mirage. 

"You got shot." I couldn't help but laugh. 

"Well, I realize  _ that _ ! But what about after?" 

"That thing… the robot got away. They immediately brought you back to the mainland. They had to do minor surgery on your shoulder to repair some ligaments, but you're important to the games, so they gave you the best healing supplies." I grinned a little,

"Aww, they think I'm important?" 

"More like it would be a P.R. disaster if you died." A new voice said. I looked to the door to see Jacob Young walking into my room, startling Mirage awake while he did so. 

"Kid!" Mirage exclaimed, jumping out of his chair. "Don't worry! It's okay!" All three of us looked at him. "Sorry." 

"What happened to the other guy? Forge?" I asked no one in particular. Jacob sighed, and upon further inspection, I noticed the dark circles under his eyes was even more prominent. "Shit," I muttered. 

"We're trying to figure out who, or rather what, it was that killed him," Jacob said to me. "And since you had a one-on-one meeting with him…" Now it was my turn to sigh. I felt Bloodhound squeeze my hands. 

"I, uh," I started. "I'm still trying to figure out what happened for myself." 

"Well, right now, the only other intel I have is the robot claiming to have met an eviler version of the robot in a different dimension, so I'll take whatever you have." 

"I'm sorry, Path went where now?" Mirage shook his head. 

"Last Halloween, before you got here, Path kept going on about some 'shadow realm' or something. Went little nuts till we convinced him they were just dreams." 

"Well, were they?!" Mirage shrugged,

"I was pretty sure he just got a virus in his systems. It went away after a while." 

"Riight." 

"So?" Jacob pressed. I thought for a second. 

"I think I know him." 

"You what?" Mirage interrupted. 

"I don't know. Like I've never seen him before, but...." I paused, unsure if I should be telling the head of P.R. that the company that was sponsoring the games had experimented on me three hundred years ago. Finally, I sighed, "I think he is or was project Red Skull." I saw Mirage's eyes go wide. 

"You don't-" Bloodhound started. I nodded. 

"I'm going to need you to fill in some blanks for me," Jacob interrupted. 

"It was a secret Hammond project like three hundred years ago." 

"How the Hell do you know what Hammond did three hundred years ago?!" 

"That's not important. I can't say for sure, but" I looked between Bloodhound and Mirage. "It's him. I don't know how I know, but whatever that robot is, he used to be a person." 

"Are you suggesting Forge's attacker is a simulacrum?" Jacob cut in again. 

"If that is a person that is now inside a robot, then I guess so." I heard Jacob curse a dozen times under his breath before standing up. 

"Okay. Thank you for your help Sly. I'm glad you are recovering," and with that, he left the room. 

"That poor dude needs a vacation," I said, causing Bloodhound and Mirage to laugh a little. "Can we go home?" I asked a second later. 

"I'm afraid not, Elskan," Bloodhound cooed. "They want to keep you here till tomorrow evening for observation." 

"But, there's a game in the afternoon!" Mirage shot me a look that I could tell meant 'suck it up,' and I sighed, crossing my good arm over the other. "Stupid person robot from my past." 

"You'll be good as new in a few days, my love," Bloodhound said. "The games will still be here." 

"Until murder robot comes back." 

"You should get some more rest." Bloodhound went on. 

"So should you two," I replied, looking between Hound and Mirage. Neither of them moved. "It's two in the morning!" 

"And?" Mirage asked. 

"Go home. Both of you. Sleep. In a real bed. I'll be fine. Promise." 

"Fine," Mirage was the first to cave. "Only because I need my beauty sleep to look good for tomorrow's match." 

"That's the spirit." 

"C'mon Houndy," Mirage said, looping one of his arms through Bloodhound's. I could see the hesitation behind their mask. 

"I'm not going anywhere," I told them. "Sleep and come back in the morning." Finally, they nodded. 

"I'll send a nurse to check on you on our way out."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next morning Bloodhound was back in my room before I had even woken up. After the nurse came in after they left, I was given some more painkillers that involved making me sleep till nearly noon. Already my shoulder was feeling much better, even more so than it did when I had first woken. The doctors told me I would be back to normal soon, but no matter how much pleading, they still wouldn't let me into today's game—something about the bloodsport being to 'dangerous' for someone recovering from surgery. 

"Win for me today, will you?" I said to Bloodhound as they were leaving my room. 

"Anything for you, my love." The door to my small room closed, and I lay back on my bed; still a little upset they wouldn't let me participate in today's match. God knew I could use the distraction, since the encounter with that thing the night before my mind couldn't stop spinning. What had he meant by he had saved me just a couple years too late? Did he unfreeze me back on Earth? And if he did… that only left me with more questions. 

I decided to turn on the little T.V. in my room to try and distract myself. Only when I turned it on, instead of seeing the pregame interviews…

"A Hammond Robotics employee was killed early this morning on Talos," a reporter was saying. "The man was said to be working on the new Planet Harvester that is going to be introduced into the Apex Games Arena. The games and Hammond have released a small video captured by a security camera asking anyone who knows anything to come forward." The screen played a very short clip where a figure could be seen running past a door frame.

My face went wide. It was him. Again. The simulacrum. What the hell was he doing? I shook my head and looked back at the T.V.T.V.,

"This comes one night after the murder of Hyperfighting Champion, Jimmy' Forge' McCormick." the reporter went on. "Forge had been interviewing about his upcoming position in the Apex Games when he was attacked. Reports say people at the event had tried to catch the assailant who put Apex Legend, Sly, into the hospital before making off. Sly is now in recovery. No other injuries were reported." I turned off the T.V. and looked around the empty room,

"I made the news!" 


	71. Chapter 71

The next few days went by rather slow. Even though my shoulder was feeling better, I still wasn't allowed to go anywhere or to do anything other than sitting at home. Bloodhound and my friends did their best to entertain me over these days. Still, no movie marathon could keep my mind off of the events that had happened that day in Sorting Factory. 

The man, or robot, whatever he was, was still on a killing spree. A couple more Hammond employees had been taken out, and though the games wouldn't tell us who did it, we all knew. It was starting to put all of the legends on edge, all of them wondering how close he was from slaughtering legends. After all, we were complicit, for the most part, in what Hammond was doing to the new arena. From Bloodhound's explanation and worry, I could tell that this Planet Harvester was no good thing. 

"Sly!" a voice interrupted my thinking. "Red or yellow?" I looked over to Mirage, who was holding up two shirts. 

"Uhh… Yellow?" 

"The yellow?! It's an autograph session, not a strip club!" 

"Okay... Red?" 

"Red?! I'm not on The Bachelor!" 

"Wait, they still make that-"

"I like the red, Amor," Octane interrupted. I put my hands up in defeat, only causing myself to wince at the pain in my shoulder. Mirage laughed a little at my misery before throwing me the sling I was supposed to still have around my arm. Then, he went back into his room to change. "Sucks you have to miss the session, amiga," Octane said to me as he waited for Mirage. 

"Oh yeah. I'm devastated," I replied, my voice monotone. Octane rolled his eyes. 

"Boring! All of you!" he gestured to the room, which was me, Bloodhound, and Bangalore. "How do you two even get out of these things?" he asked the others.

"I believe Mr. Young is afraid of me," Bloodhound replied, causing me and Bangalore to laugh. 

"I've threatened him a few times," Bangalore answered. 

"Tav! Are you ready to go?" Mirage called out. "Stop making fun of Sly! She's injured!" 

"You want to see me kick your ass while still in a sling?"

"I'd like to see that," Bangalore mumbled. Mirage rolled his eyes. 

"We'll see you all tomorrow. Sly, try to keep yourself in one piece?" 

"No guarantees." The pair got into the elevator and headed to the lobby. The rest of the legends were already signing photos of themselves. Bangalore grabbed the remote and began to flip through T.V channels. Bloodhound came to sit down beside me, and I quickly curled up next to them. Bangalore paused her browzing and looked at the two of us, curiously.

"Is there something you would like to say?" Bloodhound asked, noticing Bangalore's gaze. She shook her head. 

"I didn't expect this," she gestured to the two of us. "But I can see it." And with that, she went back to trying to find something to watch. Turns out the station she had been looking for was the news. It was playing another story about the murder robot on the loose. I sighed and closed my eyes, only for a brief second.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

My eyes sprung open, another nightmare about being frozen, having crept its way into my mind. I was back in my bed, or rather Bloodhound's bed, and rolled over, wanting to get myself closer to Bloodhound, craving their warmth, when I noticed something on the roof. A pair of orange, glowing eyes.

"Jesus!" I exclaimed, scrambling to sit up, to look for something to defend myself with. But the figure on the roof had now jumped down onto the bed, pinning me down. My breathing had gotten rapid; he was here to finish the job, wasn't he? I spun my head, looking for Bloodhound to help, but their side of the bed was empty. This only made my panic double. I opened my mouth to scream, but before I had the chance, his metallic hand covered my mouth.

"Relax," the eerie voice spoke, his other hand holding a finger up to where his lips would be. "They're fine." I glanced at Artur's empty cage to see a note taped on. Bloodhound had gone hunting. "You will be too. If you can answer my questions." I slowly nodded, and he removed his hand and sat back further on the bed. I remained silent, not wanting to say anything, though I did bring the blankets up to my chest. "Why can't I kill you?" 

"What?" 

"I had meant to kill you. Shoot you in the head. End your miserable existence." 

"Uh…" 

"I know who you are. I'm not sure how, there are no memories. Just the idea of you." 

"I mean, that's kind of where I'm at to bro," I mumbled. Apparently, the robot didn't like this response, and soon the blade was back on my throat. I put my hands up. "I was experimented on by Hammond," I quickly explained. "Like, three hundred years ago." 

"With me?" 

"Yes. No. Well, the only other 'project' there was also a human…" At this, the creature grunted.

"Hammond decided that I didn't need my skinsuit anymore," he muttered. "We were… friends?" he practically spat the word out. 

"Kind of? I guess. I don't really remember. I remember you telling me-"

"That is not me anymore!" he snarled, causing me to jump. I forced myself to take a deep breath, I could tell I was walking on thin ice.

"Okay, uh, I remember… him, promising to help me escape. That's all I know." The creature sitting on my bed crossed his long, metal arms.

"Which _ I  _ did," he muttered, emphasizing the I. 

"Why?" I blurted out. He cocked his head to the side. 

"I had learned about a Hammond facility back on that grimy planet you call Earth. It had nothing for me, so I tore it down. Guess you popped out." I slowly nodded. 

"A-are you going to kill me?" This made the machine laugh. It sounded deep, guttural. 

"Eventually. They're going to let me kill all of you. Over and over." 

"Wha-" I cut myself off as I realized. "They're letting you into the games. Aren't they?" I don't know why I felt so surprised. The murder had done wonders for putting the games in the spotlight once again. It made sense that the organizers would want to jump on the chance of getting someone so… so him, to participate. 

"I just had to make sure that whatever he thought about, you wouldn't get in the way." I remained silent. "See you in the arena Jordan."


	72. Chapter 72

The dropship was dead silent. We were getting closer to the drop zone, and with each second that went past, tension grew and grew. The cause of the tension? The murder robot that had tried to kill us all a couple of weeks ago. Now going by Revenant, he was pacing the floor of the dropship, eagerly eyeing each and every one of us, as if trying to size us up. 

Word got around about his surprise visit to my room a couple of nights ago. The idea of him being able to sneak around like that in the complex all of the legends with anxiety. I even had to talk down a few of them from going out and trying to kill him in advance. The people in charge of the games had nothing to say about our newest addition, either. Ajay had been the one to bring it up to the PR guy about what had happened with him, and he had looked as if he were about to shit himself when he told all of us not to worry about him. 

I glanced over to Bloodhound, who hadn’t taken their eyes off of Revenant since we got on the dropship, a hand on their axe at all times. I gave them a small nudge and gently took their hand off the axe, lacing their fingers with mine instead. 

The announcer of the ship told us that the path the dropship was taking had been revealed, we were to be flying in over Lava Fissure. Looking on the map, I noticed that now Fuel Depo was gone entirely, being replaced with the Harvester. It also looked as if the rumours of the ground cracking had been right, and there were streaks of lava shown on the map that led all the way through Capitol City, breaking it into two.

Next, the screens above us flicked on, getting ready to announce the teams for the match. I saw my name put next to Bloodhound and Pathfinder, causing me to grin. Bloodhound squeezed my hand as the two of us walked over to the jump zone, where Pathfinder was already waiting.

“Hi, friends!” he exclaimed. “Are you ready to win?”

“Always!” I replied, laughing a little. I had been a bit worried about my first match back since I had been shot in the shoulder by…. He had been put onto Mirage’s team. Mirage looked very unhappy about the fact, maybe even a little afraid. Had I not been afraid myself of Revenant, I would have laughed at Mirage. 

“Where would you like to land, friends?” Pathfinder asked, interrupting my thoughts. I shrugged and looked over to Bloodhound.

“Overlook will provide decent loot,” they said. 

“This will be fun,” I said quietly, now leaning on Bloodhound’s shoulder. “We haven’t been on a team together in a while.” 

“And, now everyone knows we’re dating,” they grumbled. I looked down at my hand, which was still in theirs. I began to pull away,

“If it makes you uncom-”

“No. This is nice.” I grinned and gave their hand a slight squeeze. I looked over at our third teammate, who was looking at us rather curiously. I watched the question mark appear on his screen when he looked down at his own hand, then back at Bloodhound and I. He made an attempt to reach out for my other hand but quickly put his hand back down. I rolled my eyes and held out my hand. 

“Can friends hold hands?” he asked, looking at it.

“Of course!” Pathfinder’s screen flicked to a happy face as he grabbed my hand. “We ready to jump?” I asked, looking at both of my teammates. The floor had just started to lower. They both nodded, so I gripped their hands a little harder and lept, dragging them both down with me while I laughed. 

“Look, friends!” Pathfinder exclaimed, breaking away from us. “I’m flying!” I giggled as I watched him flap his arms in the air while we dropped. I shifted my gaze to Bloodhound, who had their arms folded in front of them as they did a flip through the air. I thought for a moment of a cool thing I could do as we fell, deciding a classic Spider-Man pose would be good enough.

We split off from each other as we neared the ground, each wanting to tackle a different part of the area to loot. I ran through a couple of the buildings, picking up a Hemlock, an R-301, and a white body shield. 

“Hey, Hound, there’s a Longbow here!” I spoke into the coms. Recalling that it was their preferred sniper. 

“I shall come to grab it. You can have this level two shield in exchange.” 

“But then you’ll be in a level one.”

“I’m wearing a level three!” Pathfinder exclaimed through my headpiece. 

“Sly will take my level two,” Bloodhound repeated, now walking into the building where I was standing beside the sniper. I thought about arguing, but I could tell that was not a fight I was going to win, so I scooped up the shield from them.

“Attention,” the announcer boomed overhead. “There is a new kill leader.” I glanced over to one of the giant banners and saw a picture of Revenant and the number six by his kill count. 

“Jesus,” I muttered under my breath. “It’s been two minutes!” 

“They must’ve landed hot zone,” Bloodhound said. “It was in Train Yard, so hopefully we won’t run into them yet.” 

“The ring is going to be closing in Skyhook!” Pathfinder interrupted. I looked at my map to see he had scanned a Survey Beacon. “Our fastest route would be to go through Epicenter!” Beside me, I heard Bloodhound take a sharp breath in. 

“W-why don’t we go around through Refinery?” I quickly suggested. “Then, we could look for another shield for Hound.”   
  
“There could be a shield in Epi-”

“We could catch the train in Refinery!” I interrupted him. The map told me that the train was currently in Fragments. “It’ll be getting to Refinery in a few minutes! We can make it!” 

“You really like that thing, don’t you?” Bloodhound said with a small chuckle. I nodded eagerly and grab their hand to pull them along.

“Let’s go!” 

By the time we made it to Refinery, the train was just pulling up to the station. I eagerly hopped on, making my way to the front to look out the giant window. 

“Refinery was looted not long away,” Bloodhound said, stepping onto the train after me. “They could still be around.” I nodded and swung around one of my weapons again, focusing on keeping watch as the train got ready to move.

“I see hostels over here!” Pathfinder exclaimed from the back car on the train. Both Bloodhound and I took off towards him, just as the train lurched to a start. I ended up losing my balance and falling flat on my face. “Now’s not a good time to nap, friend!” Pathfinder told me through the coms. 

“Yeah, yeah,” I mumbled, standing up and brushing off my pants as I heard Bloodhound fire a shot from their weapon. 

“Gods favour my aim today,” they said. I made my way over to them, careful not to fall over again as the train began picking up speed, and saw the enemy team trying to drag their injured member out of the way. I lined up a shot with my R-301, turning it onto single fire like Bangalore had taught me recently, and managed to land a few of the shots on one of the enemies. Bloodhound fired another Longbow round and hit the third team member in the head just as the train hit full speed. 

“That was awesome!” I exclaimed. Before I realized what I was doing, I was offering a high-five to Bloodhound. 

“Isn’t that what he’s supposed to do?” they asked, looking at Pathfinder. I felt my face flush, and I was thankful for my mask, but I slowly began to lower my hand. This made Bloodhound shake their head, and they grabbed my hand, bringing it up to the part of their mask where their mouth would be as if giving it a kiss. 

“You’re cheesy,” I said. They shrugged and began walking back to the front of the ship, offering a High-Five to Pathfinder as they passed. I rolled my eyes again as I followed them, also providing Pathfinder with a High-Five. As I walked back to the front of the train, I looked back at the banners, seeing that the kill leader was still Revenant, only now he was up to fifteen kills. 

“Only five squads left,” Pathfinder said, looking at the banners over my shoulders.

“This is only the first ring,” Bloodhound added. I felt myself gulp as I recalled the conversation I had had with Revenant. I had no doubt in my mind that he would hesitate to kill me today. It fell silent between my team as the train pulled into the station at Skyhook. 

“There’s another survey beacon over there!” Pathfinder mentioned. “We could go and see where we need to be!” 

“Following your lead,” Bloodhound told him. I nodded and stepped off the train as Pathfinder set up a zip-line towards the building with the beacon. The building was rather tall, so I was thankful that we had the zip-line to avoid walking all the way over there. At the top, Bloodhound perched themselves over the ledge, eyeing the rest of the city with their sniper. I popped myself down beside them, lacking the scopes on my assault rifles to be of any help keeping watch. 

“Scanning for the next ring location!” Pathfinder announced. I looked back over to Bloodhound. 

“There are a couple of squads in the area. I can see Revenant.” 

“If you get a shot on him-”

“Don’t worry, Elskan.” Pathfinder had finished his scan and had come to sit beside Bloodhound and I. I watched Bloodhound as they prepared to take a shot, the banners on the side telling us Revenant was at eighteen kills. I heard them take a breath in, and they fired. “Got-” they cut themselves off, pulling back from the sniper, adjusting their grip, and looked back.

“What happened?” I asked.

“He disappeared.” 

“He what now?” I popped my head up over the side of the ledge.

“I hit him, in the head, but he… there!” Bloodhound pointed towards another set of buildings. I followed their gaze and, sure enough, saw Revenant. Heading right towards us. 

“Are you sure you hit him, friend?” Pathfinder asked. 

“Yes,” they muttered, almost sounding agitated. I looked over the ledge again and saw him getting closer and closer. At this distance, I could see the blood already dripping off of him. His teammates were nowhere in sight.

“He doesn’t seem very happy about that,” I mumbled. 

“Sly, with me on the stairs,” Bloodhound started instructing as the killer robot approached our building. “Path, watch the elevator shaft.” We all got ourselves into position. I noticed my hands were shaking slightly as I aimed my Hemlock down the stairs. We waited eagerly, wanting to be the team that could take him out, ruin his kill streak, and we could do it. We had him corned. No matter which way he would get to the roof of our building, stairs or elevator, or…” 

“Holy shit!” I exclaimed, spinning my head to see Revenant crawling over the ledge of the roof. He already had Pathfinder in his grasp, closing his hands around Path’s neck, before tossing his body off the side of the roof he had just climbed up on. Bloodhound had a quicker reaction time than I did and had begun firing at him. Only Revenant was moving to fast. It almost looked as if he was dodging the bullets. 

I began to fire at him as well, thinking that one of us had to be able to hit him, but it seemed every bullet went around him as he lurched towards us. It didn’t even look like he had a weapon, he was just himself, he was his own weapon. 

I watched in horror as he grabbed the gun from Bloodhound’s hands. They had fired a shot into his chest. Still, it didn’t slow him down, he took their gun, spun their arm till I heard a loud snap, then used every remaining bullet in the magazine on Bloodhound, though they had been dead after the first two. 

“Hey!” I exclaimed, spinning around my second weapon. Revenant saw me and tilted his head. If he had a mouth, I could’ve sworn he had would have been smiling. I began to pull the trigger on the R-301, but with a laugh, he lunged towards me, turning his hand into a long, sharp blade, that half a second later was in my chest. 

Somehow, I didn’t die instantly, and there was a moment of pain, of shock. I tried to talk, to scream, but all I could feel was blood bubbling in my throat. 

“I told you I would kill you,” Revenant said, his blade still in my chest as he lifted his arm so that my feet were no longer touching the ground. In one quick motion, he pulled it out, and I fell to the ground. “Didn’t I?” 


	73. Chapter 73

Before we knew what had happened, our time on Talos had flown by. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, and next thing I knew, they had put us back on a ship, flying back to Solace City to see the newly renovated arena in just a few days time.

After Revenant had got his first match out of the way, things seemed to calm down between the legends. He didn’t stick around after matches when we all would get together, so it was almost as if nothing had changed. 

By the last month of our stay there, Bloodhound and I were doing better than ever. I had almost forgotten that I had a room of my own, I spent so much time in theirs. That and the building managers shot down my idea of us just taking down the wall between our two apartments to make a penthouse. 

All of this led me here, back in my room at Mirage’s house. Only this time I was packing up what remained. 

“So this is it, hey?” Mirage asked, sticking his head into my room. “You really are moving out.” I nodded a few times as I taped shut the last of my boxes. “It’s about time,” Mirage went on. “I think I’m going to turn this room into a home theatre. Or maybe a mini bar. Or-”

“I’m going to miss you to Mirage,” I interrupted. 

“So much!” Before I could stop him, Mirage had pulled me into a giant hug. 

“You two are  _ literally  _ on the same team for the match tonight,” Wraith now interrupted, seeming to have wandered over from the living room. 

“Well yeah but-” 

“It’s just-” Mirage and I started saying at the same time. 

“Whatever,” Wraith rolled her eyes. 

“Do you remember when I first got here?” I asked. Both of them nodded.

“God you were a mess,” Mirage muttered. 

“Hey!” 

“What?! It’s true.” Now I rolled my eyes. “You’ve come a long way kid.” 

“Thanks. Both of you,” I said. “I really don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t killed you Mirage.”

“Do we really need to keep bringing that up? But, you’re welcome. I’m glad we took a chance on you. I’m going to miss you.” I laughed a little and picked up one of the boxes.

“We'll, I’ll only be a half hour drive away. And I tend to be regularly involved in the same events as you so…” 

“Yeah, yeah.”

“You looking forward to living at Bloodhound’s?” Wraith asked, picking up one of the boxes as well. 

“Yeah. I’m really excited.”

“I dunno kid,” Mirage started. “You two in a cabin in the woods? Sounds like the start to one of those old horror movies you like.” 

“Well, given the amount of times their house has been attacked by strangers with guns versus yours, I’d say I’m feeling a lot more safe.” 

“I installed cameras! It’s very safe here!” 

“And I look forward to visiting,” I said with a small laugh. We brought the boxes to the front of the house where Bloodhound was just pulling up with their Jeep. 

“Are you ready to go, Elskan?” they asked. I nodded and looked back at Mirage and Wraith with a smile. 

“I am.”

  
  
  
  


**Author’s Note**

We have indeed reached the end of Sly. 

I want to thank everyone for reading, liking, and commenting on this fic throughout the year and a half I have been making it. I am very grateful for the amount of people who supported me and stuck through with me to the end.

Though I wish I could keep writing Sly, I will admit the plot has gotten quite complicated with each added legend, and the add in of the quest lore that wouldn’t fit in with this story. I also am heading back to post secondary in just a few days, so it seems like the right time to wrap this story up, especially with the word count nearly 115 000. 

As mentioned in the past, I wrote this entire fic in my free time, providing it for free, so if you would like to help support me as a creator, or even a student, please leave a tip on my KoFi. A little goes a long way in helping me achieve my goals.

  
  


Also, if you are interested in commissioning me for writing, please send me a message or look me up on tumblr for more details. I am always happy to write some more Apex fics, or even a one shot of Sly, if you so desire. 

Again, thank you all so so so so much, for sticking with me and reading!! I wish all of you safety and happiness!!

-Moz


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